CYCLOPSITTA ¢ OXENI, Gowa.

Coxen’s Parrakeet.

Cyclopsitia Coxent, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 182

ce

My thanks are due to Mr. Waller, of Brisbane. for his k; : .
or his ess ill se ee . ee
MPP re, which, at his request, I have | » Aindness in sending me a fine specimen of this
ittle Parrak th, at his reques lave name 0) Once Le ae
Re of , : = an q ee : amed after ©. Coxen, Esq., a Member of the Legislative
Assembly of Queensland, who has for many years taken a lively interest in ornitholozy. At present it j
: Be 2 eee eS IS
the only member of the genus Cyclopsitta that has been found in Australia ;
i 3

but other species of the same
form are somewhat numerous in the islands to the nor

somewha thward of that country. Mr. Wallace enumerates
phe paowing in nus paper S On the pools of tine Malayan Region,” published in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Society for 1864, viz. :—Cyclopsitta chophthalma of the Aru Islands ; C. Desmaresté of New Guinea ;
C. Blyth of Mysol; and C. lozia, C. lunulata, and C. leucophthalma of the Philippines.
The history of the bird, so far as I can learn, is, that during the month of June, 1866, several specimens
, who had seen a flock in the neighbourhood for
some weeks, and had shot several for a pudding. Being somewhat interested in ornithology, and observing

were procured about thirty miles from Brisbane, by a sawyer

a difference between these and the ordinary green Parrakeet, he skinned three or four, two of which he
brought to Mr. Waller, who subsequently visited the locality and succeeded in obtaining additional
examples, and who, in a letter recently received from him, informs me that “the large scrubs of the
mountainous district about forty or fifty miles north-west of Brisbane, which has been but little visited by
Europeans, appears to be the natural home of the bird. There it sits on the large and lofty fig-trees, silent
as death ; and its presence can only be detected by attentively listening to the falling of the refuse of the
wild figs, upon which it seems solely to subsist, and the hard tops of which are easily cut off with its strong
bill. All the specimens I examined had their crops filled with the soft interior portion; but it appears to
reject the fully ripe fruit. Its colouring so closely resembles that of the large leaves with which it is sur-
rounded that it almost defies detection ; and the only chance of obtaining examples is by watching the falling ]
of the refuse of its food, and never moving your eyes until your have marked your bird; or it is ten to one
you will be unsuccessful. When it has finished with one bunch of figs, it silently removes to another. It
emits no call while on the trees, but when it leaves them utters a very low sound resembling cheep, cheep.
The sexes are alike in plumage; but the female is rather larger than the male.”

In size and in some other respects the Cyclopsitta Covent is nearly allied to the C. dophthalma, but ditters
in the absence of scarlet on the crown and in the smaller extent of that colour on the cheeks.

General plumage green ; across the forehead a narrow band of red, which allies through the lores with
a large patch of the same hue on the ear-coverts, beneath which is a patch of blue ; a margined
with blue; a streak of red on the tertiaries near the body; tail short and wholly green 5 bill yo Oe the
upper mandible of a bluish horn-colour, blending with a whitish line at the base ; under aoa ise
tips of both black ; feet pale greenish white ; nails light horn-colour, darker at the point ; irides hazel.

Total length 7; inches, bill 3, wing 35, tail 2, tarsi 3.

The figures are of the size of life.