52G NESTS A WD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The late Captain F. C. Hansen (of the Murray steamer, " Maggie ") 

 informed me that he has found the Black-tailed Parrakcet nesting in the 

 Broken Bend cliffs (mnllee cliffs) of the River Miu'ray, near Wentworth, 

 also in the cliffs lower down, between Morgan, South Australia, and the 

 border of Victoria. Captain Hansen also states that generally only a 

 pair of young is hatched out of a clutch of foui" eggs, and that a pair of 

 old birds rears two broods a season in the same nest. 



Mr. W. White, Reedbeds (South Australia), whose roomy aviary 

 contains many beautiful Parrots, has a liandsome Black-tailed Parrakeet 

 which has reared several clutches of young Cockatoo Pan-akeets. As 

 soon as they were hatched by their proper parents they were handed 

 over (evidently by mutual consent) to the Polytelis. 



491. — Ptistes erythroptekus, Gmelin. — (410) 

 RED-WINGED LORY. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v., pi. i8. 



Reference.- — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.. vol. xx., p. 481. 



Prei'ious Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848) , 

 also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 38 (1865) ; North : Austn. Mus. 

 Cat., p. 256, pi. 14, fig. 5 (1889). 



Geographical Distribution. — Queensland and New South Wales. 



Nest. — Within a hollow bole or branch of a tall tree, usually a 

 eucalypt, and not unfrequently by a stream. 



Eggs. — Clutch, four to five, usually foiu" ; round oval in shape ; 

 texture of shell comparatively fino ; siu-facc slightly glossy ; colour, pure 

 wbitc\ Dimensions in inches of a clutch : (1) 1-32 x 1-05," (2) 1-32 x 1-04, 

 (3) 1-28 X 1-06. 



Observdtions. — This most lovely Parrot is restricted to Queensland 

 and the northern part of Now South Wales. Not without reluctance 

 I have shot the beautiful species for museum purposes, while travei-sing 

 the eucalyptus flats on the Lower Fitzroy. I soon learnt to locate the 

 bird by its pecidiar " chink chink " like notes ; and when a bird is seen 

 in its living dress of exquisite vcrditer green, dark back, and brilliant 

 scarlet shoiddcrs, bending with its own weight the green bough to which 

 it clings, I can well understand Gould when he wrote — " It is beyond 

 my power to describe the extreme beauty of the appearance of the Red- 

 winged Lory when seen among the silvery branches of acacia, particularly 

 when the flocks comprise a large; number of males, the gorgeous scarlet 

 of whose .shoulders offers so striking a contrast to the siUTotmding objects." 



I understand that Gould himself .shot the Red-winged Loiy on the 

 Liverpool Plains of New Rnutli Wales, tlierefore it .seems unaccountable 

 that Dr. Ramsay should have omilted such an important bird from tlie 

 column of his own Slate in his "Tabular List." Mr, North met with it 



