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Show 1878.] AND O T H E R ARGENTINE PARROTS. 77 cylindrical) to that instrument, but by no means to that of of a flower or fruit, to which the tongue has no resemblance. I have at this very moment under my inspection the tongue of a large Macrocercus macao (Sittace chloroptera, Gray), which recently died in the house of one of my friends. This tongue has on each side, behind the two fringed lobes, with which the tongue of all parrots terminate, several large spines. In the tongue of Bolborhynchus murinus I find no spines in the same place. In volume i. of the same work, Dr. Finsch thinks it surprising (auffallend) that I have not mentioned that Conurus nanday also inhabits the Argentine Republic, although the specimen in Mr. Sclater's collection came from Buenos Aires. This latter fact may be true; but I am still more surprised to find that Dr. Finsch thinks that all specimens coming from Buenos Aires must necessarily have lived in this country. The species alluded to is by no means an inhabitant of the Argentine Republic, but comes only from Paraguay, and is often brought to Buenos Aires alive, as the bird is here considered a great rarity. That it lives also at Bolivia I have never heard here in Buenos Aires, though I have had a living specimen in my room for a long while, which was very tame, and would stand on my shoulder and remain in this position while I took long walks. At last I gave it to a friend of mine who was going to Europe, with the instruction that after its death it was to be put in the collection at Halle. The description of this bird given by Dr. Finsch is not entirely correct. The head has no blackish brown on the front and vertex, but is entirely black, the brown colour being the consequence of the skin being old and dry. In vol. ii. part 1, p. 116, of Dr. Finsch's work, the Bolborhynchus monachus is named " calita." The orthography of this term is erroneous, the bird, which is very common in all parts of the Argentine Republic, being called always catita. Again, Dr. Finsch says the two sexes do not differ; but I find the breast of the male of a much clearer grey than that of the female, and that it has very distinct, darker and clearer transverse stripes, while the latter are wanting in the female, which has an obscure grey-coloured breast, with a trace of brown-grey, which is not seen at all in the male. In the young state both sexes are alike. In vol. ii. p. 126, Dr. Finsch describes my Bolborhynchus rubrirostris from the young specimen sent by myself to the Bremen Museum, and blames me for not mentioning the blue-grey-greenish colour on the throat and breast. But this colour is not persistent, but is only found in the young bird (of the first year). The adult bird is entirely clear green on the breast, the same as on the neck and the whole body. From the young state of the specimen examined by Dr. Finsch results also the discrepancy in the length of the wing, which measures 5 inches in the old bird, and not 3" 10'" as he says. |
