A. Newton requested further specimens, especially males, but in 1875 he finally published a plate of the female, lamenting that no male specimens could be found. Tafforet's 1726 account had been rediscovered the previous year, and A. Newton noted that it confirmed his assumption that the male would turn out be much more colourful than the female. Newton's collector, the English naturalist Henry H. Slater, had seen a live Newton's parakeet the year before, but was not carrying a gun at the time. On 14 August 1875, William Vandorous shot a male specimen. It may have been the same specimen Slater had observed. It was subsequently sent to E. Newton by William J. Caldwell. This is the paratype of the species, numbered UMZC 18/Psi/67/h/2 and housed in the Cambridge Museum.