JfoiddiaulXCRuAttr'dtltllitA.
PRXONTTTTRITS SPATXJ1LXGER..
Waiter k Cohn,/ny>
PRIONITURUS SPATULIGER.
Philippine Racket-tailed Parrot.
Psittacus discurus, Vieill. Gal. des Ois., t. 24.
------------ discosurus, Wagl. Mon. Psitt., p. 524.
------------ spatuliger, foem., Bourj. Perr., t. 53 a.
Prioniturus discurus, Bonap. Consp. Gen. Av., p. 6.
Urodiscus spatuliger, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 155.
Prioniturus spatuliger, Gray, List of Spec, o f Birds in Coll. Brit. Mus,, part iii. sec. ii., Psittacidce, p. 18.
The above are the synonyms assigned to this bird by Mr. G. R. Gray.
T here is a marked difference between the Racket-tailed Parrots o f the Philippines and those inhabiting
the Celebes; and in both countries there are evidently two very distinct species. The Philippine birds
have even been separated generically from their more southern representatives; but I think the grounds of
this generic distinction are untenable, and I consequently retain them under one generic title— that of
Prioniturus.
Specimens of the bird represented on the opposite Plate were brought from Manilla by Mr. Napper, and,
if I mistake not, also from the southern Island of Mindanao; from my hands a male and a female of this
species passed into the National Collection, where all the species of the genus may be seen and consulted
by ornithologists! The P . spatuliger is a stout, thick-set bird, and is nearly uniform in colouring as regards
the upper and under surface of the body,— the crown of the head being relieved in the male by a patch of
light or verditer blue, and a part of the under side of the primaries with darker blue. The female, as usual,
is smaller, and has the spatules of the central tail-feathers but little longer than the lateral ones.
General plumage green; crown verditer blue; under surface yellowish green; upper surface of the
primaries brown, washed with bluish green on their edges; on their under surface the brown colour
occupies the outer web and half the breadth of the inner, the remainder being bluish green; under surface
of the tail bluish green; upper surface o f the five lateral tail-feathers on each side bluish green at the base,
and blackish brown for the remainder of their length; two centre feathers green, their shafts and spatules
blackish brown; bill creamy white; feet mealy grey.
The Plate represents a male of the natural size, and a female somewhat reduced. The plant is the
Phalcenopsis amabilis.