Male.--Forehead, lores, and face blue, bases of the feathers largely
green; a large red spot on vertex, surrounded by blue; hind head,
neck, and sides of neck grass-green; mantle, back, and rump duller and
more yellowish green; wings, upper tail-coverts, and middle pair of
rectrices grass-green; lower parts green, slightly yellowish. Iris
gray; bill, legs, and nails light horn-blue. Whitehead gives the
iris as "dark brown." Length, including rackets, 305 to 317; two
males measure, wing, 164 to 166; tail, without rackets, 84 to 85;
culmen from cere, 20 to 21; tarsus, 15 to 16.
Female.--Much like male but red and blue of head and face replaced by
dark green; a slight trace of blue on forehead and around eyes. Colors
of soft parts as in the male. "Differs from the female of P. verticalis
in having the head dull grass-green, the forehead, lores, sides of
the crown, and feathers round the eyes being washed with blue. The
under parts are like those of the male and never yellow-green as in
the Sibutu female." (Grant.) One female measures, wing, 158; tail
without rackets, 83; culmen from cere, 20; tarsus, 17.
Young.--Immature birds of each sex resemble the adult female.
The mountain racket-tailed parrakeet was discovered by Whitehead in the
mountains of Abra and Lepanto Provinces. At San Jose a live bird was
purchased. The natives said it "had been snared in their maize-fields
and that it was common enough when the cereal was ripe." We collected
a number of specimens in Benguet Province where it was not uncommon
though somewhat difficult to secure; the species is well known to
the Igorot by the name "u-lis." It is improbable that this beautiful
parrot occurs below the pine belt but with our meager knowledge of
the vertical distribution of birds in the Philippines it is better to
follow this statement with a large interrogation mark. This species
is very noisy and does not differ in habits from lowland members of
the genus.