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Show 1891.] ON NEW PARROTS OF THE GENUS PLATYCERCUS. 129 nearly allied than to any other existing suborder of birds. One good genus of linking forms, at least, is the South-American Picumnus, as Parker has already shown ; and Parker believed that the Pici " have a Passerine foundation." I here venture to state that as our knowledge of the morphology of Aves becomes more perfect, the fact will be appreciated that the Pici and the Passeres are divergent groups from a common stock in time; and that the former have simply become highly specialized and modified in accordance with their mode of life and habits. This common stock Furbringer has referred to as the 'Pico-Passeriformes,' and the root-stock just prior to the divergence the ' Pico-Passeres,' which latter he again subdivides into his families. This also appears to be in keeping with our present knowledge of the subject, and what the osteology of the groups in question seems to indicate. 2. Descriptions of two n e w Species of Parrots of the Genus Platycercus. By T. S A L V A D O R I , C.M.Z.S. [Eeceived February 2, 1891.] (Plate XII.) 1. PLATYCERCUS XANTHOGENYS, sp. nov. Head, sides of the neck, and all the under surface dull scarlet ; the feathers of the breast and abdomen with narrow pale yellow edges ; cheeks pale yellow ; feathers of the nape and back black, bordered with red ; feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts also black, broadly margined with olive-grey, the longest upper tail-coverts stained with red at the tip ; a black patch on the upper wing-coverts, the exterior ones from the bend of the wing down to the primary-coverts and also the base of the outer webs of the primaries blue ; inner greater wing-coverts and inner secondaries with grey edges, stained with yellowish or reddish; under wing-coverts blue ; quills underneath black ; sides of the body tinged with yellowish ; thighs grey ; central tail-feathers dull blue, the next pair of tail-feathers blue, brighter on the outer webs and tipped with white, the remaining tail-feathers light blue tipped with white and with the basal portion deep blue ; bill horn-colour ; feet brown. Total length 12*5 inches, wing 5*45, tail 6, bill 0*56, tarsus 0*63. Hab. Unrecorded, but no doubt Australia. This species is nearly allied to P.icterotis (Temm.), from which it differs in being larger and in having the cheeks of a paler yellow, the feathers of the back edged with red, the rump-feathers and upper tail-coverts edged with greyish olive, and the central tail-feathers blue, with no green. There are also other minor differences. The type of this species, formerly in Gould's collection, is now in the British Museum ; unfortunately it has no original label. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1891, No. IX. 9 |