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Show 1885.] DR. G. HARTLAUB ON A NEW PSITTACULA. 613 satisfied that it was obtained originally on one of the higher hill-ranges of Southern India. I was at first uncertain whether, after all, this apparently new Paradoxurus might not be the P. zeylanicus, var. fuscus of Kelaart (Prod.Faun. Zeyl. p. 39 ; P. montanus, KelaartapudBlyth, J. A.S.B. xx. pp. 161-184) ; but one of the typical specimens of this form in the British Museum proves to be a slightly browner variety of P. zeylonensis. I have very little doubt that the large tree-cat mentioned by Surgeon-Major Bidie in the Government • Manual of the Nilagiri District,' p. 152, as having been obtained on the Animali hills and at Kotagiri on the Nilgiris, is the species to which attention is now called. If so this form has a considerable range in the southern portious of the Syhadri, or Western Ghats. I hope before long to be able to lay before the Society a general note on the species of Paradoxurus, but meantime I propose to name the form here described after one of the best naturalists of Southern India, and to define it thus :- PARADOXURUS JERDONI, sp. nov. General structure apparently similar to that of the common P. hermaphroditus ( = P. musanga, P. typus, P. bondar, & c ) , except that the fur is uniform in length without longer black-tipped hairs on the body. Skull with anterior palatine foramina extending back as far as the anterior pair of premolars. Colour of fur deep rich brown on head, shoulders, and limbs ; back and sides the same but grizzled. Tail brown, with a long white tip. Hairs and underfur of the body brown, except a long subterminal grey ring on the longer hairs of the back and sides. Vibrissas dark brown. Dimensions approximately the same as in P. zeylonensis (head and body about 20 inches), or rather larger. The skull measures 4*45 inches in length from behind the occipital condyles to the anterior border of the premaxillaries. Hab. The higher ranges near the west coast of Southern India. The following papers were read :- 1. On a new Species of Parrot of the Genus Psittacula. By Dr. G. HARTLAUB, F.M.Z.S. [Received May 26, 1885.] (Plate XXXVIII.) In a small collection of birds' skins from Baranquilla, presented of late to the Bremen Museum, I found a single specimen of a typical Psittacula, apparently quite adult and very probably a male. After having compared this little bird with the Psittacula of our collection- (\) Ps.passerina, from S.E. Brazil, (2) Ps. cyanochlora, Natt., from P R O C ZOOL. Soc-1885, No. XL. 40 |
