84 RECORDS OF THE ATJSTRAI-IAN ITUSETJM. 



primary -coverts, black ; margins of the shoulders, under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries, pale verditer-blue ; two central tail- 

 feathers green, the apical half of the outer webs margined with 

 blue, the next on either side, green, the margins of their inner webs 

 black, the apical half of the outer webs, blue, tipped with bluish- 

 white ; the remainder of the feathers green at the base, margined 

 with black on their inner webs, and changing into blue on their 

 outer webs and bluish-white on the apical half of the feathers, 

 the green decreasing and the blue and bluish-white increasing 

 towards the lateral feathers, which are but slightly tinged with 

 green at their base ; under surface of the two central tail feathers 

 black, shaded with green on their outer and inner webs for two- 

 thirds of their length, the next on either side black, the margins 

 of the outer webs and the tips bluish-white ; the remainder black 

 at the base, light blue on the apical half ; bill, bluish-horn colour, 

 lighter at the tip ; feet, dark brown. Total length of skin 14*5 

 inches ; wing 6'5 inch ; outer tail feathers 4'2 inch ; central tail 

 feathers 8'45 inch ; bill from forehead 0*9 inch ; from nostril 0*7 

 inch ; tarsus 0'8 inch ; mid-toe 0*9 inch. 



Habitat. — Roeburne, North-west Australia. 



Type. — In Australian Museum, Sydney. 



Note. — When held in certain lights, the two central tail feathers 

 show numerous bronze cross-bars. Another specimen has the 

 apical half of the outermost secondaries tinged with blue, and the 

 two central tail feathers tipped with black. 



Rema/rhs. — Two specimens were obtained by Mr. E. H. Saunders 

 at Karratha Station, thirty-six miles S. W. of Roeburne, North-west 

 Australia, early in 1889, and were referred to by me at the Sep- 

 tember meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in 

 the same year, as immature specimens of Platycercus zonarius, but 

 upon a recent examination of a series of skins of the latter species 

 in different stages of maturity, at present in the Reference Collec- 

 tion, as well as those in the Macleayan Museum at the University, 

 and Dobroyde Collection, I find that the specimens from North- 

 west Australia are quite distinct. 



In the disposition of its markings P. occidentaUs resembles 

 P. zonarius, but it differs from that species in having light blue 

 instead of dark blue cheeks ; in the greater extent of the con- 

 spicuous lemon-yellow of the lower portion of the breast and the 

 whole of the abdomen, aiid which extends as far as the vent, instead 

 of the deep gamboge-yellow of the centre of the abdomen only; in 

 the verditer-green of the chest, back, wings, scapulars and inter- 

 scapular region, instead of dark green, and in the absence of the 

 narrow black band immediately below the collar. 



