THE PARRAKEET COCKATOO. 



375 



to encounter in his journey towards the centre shall be overcome. This beautiful and elegant 

 bird is one of its denizens. I have, it is true, seen it cross the great mountain ranges and breed 

 on the flats between them and the sea ; still, this is an unusual occurrence, and the few thus 

 found, compared to the thousands observed on the plains stretching from the interior side 

 of the mountains, proves that they have, as it were, overstepped their natural boundary. 



"Its range is extended over the whole of the southern portion of Australia, and being 

 strictly a migratory bird, it makes a simultaneous movement southward to within one hundred 

 miles of the coast in September, arriving in the York district near Swan River, in Western 

 Australia, precisely at the same time that it appears in the Liverpool plains in the eastern por- 



GROUP OP PARKAKEETS. 



tion of the country. After breeding and rearing a numerous progeny, the whole again retire 

 northwards in February and March, but to what degree of latitude towards the tropics they 

 wend their way I have not been able satisfactorily to ascertain. I have never received it from 

 Port Essington or any other port in the same latitude, which, however, is no proof that it 

 does not visit that part of the continent, since it is merely the country near the coast that 

 has yet been traversed. In all probability it will be found at a little distance in the interior 

 wherever there are situations suitable to its habits, but doubtless at approximate periods 

 to those in which it occurs in New South Wales. 



" It would appear to be more numerous in the eastern divisions of Australia than in the 

 western. During one summer it was breeding in all the apple-tree (AngopTioro) flats on the 

 Upper Hunter, as well as in similar districts on the Peel and other rivers which flow northward. 



" After the breeding season is over, it congregates in numerous flocks before taking its 

 departure. I have seen the ground quite covered bv them while engaged in procuring food ; 



