632 NESTS ANV EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



497. — Platycercus flaveolus, Gould. — (418) 

 YELLOW FARRAKEET. 



Figure. — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v., pi. 25. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xx., p. 544. 



Previous Description of Eggs. — Campbell: Wombat, Oct., 1897 (read 

 b.'fore Roy. Sue, Victoria, 9th April, 1895). 



Geographical Distribution. — New South Wales, Victoria, aud 

 South AustraUa.. 



Ne.-it. — Witliiu a hollow branch or bole of a tree, usually a red-gum 

 (Eucalyptus roatrata ), growing on a flat or bordering a stream. 



Eijyf. — Chitch, foiu' to live ; round oval in shape ; texture of shell 

 line ; surface shghtly glossy ; colour, piu'e white. Dimensions in inches 

 of a proper clutch: (1) M6 x -93, (2) M6 x -92, (3) M2 x -93, 

 (4) MOx-92. 



Observations. — As far as is yet known the Yellow Parrakeet, or 

 Swamp Lory of the trappers, has a somewhat hmited range, being 

 chiefly confined to the inland provinces of New South Wales, Victoria, 

 aud South Australia. The bird is numerous in some localities, notably 

 Riverina, where it appears to take the place of the famiUar Rosella 

 (P. eximius), and lias a call-note hke that bird, but its alann notes are 

 louder and harsher. 



I have noticed the Yellow Pai-rakeet as far south us the Pyramid 

 Hill aud Echuca districts, Victoria. At the latter place, one dewy 

 morning in early spring, I came upon a flock of about thirty or forty 

 feeding upon the surface of a sand rise. Wliile placing myself under 

 a clump of silver wattles, all abloom, to make observations upon this 

 unusually large congregation of Parrots, a pair of vagrant dogs that had 

 been rabbiting on their own account close by crossed the rise, and dis- 

 persed my feathered friends. On another occasion I watched a pair 

 of these birds feeding on " Bathurst biu-rs, by a dead log. a few paces 

 from me. The male appeared to be the larger and brighter coloured 

 bird. 



In the Moulametn district of Riverina, Mr. J. Gabriel and myself 

 found the Yellow Parrakeet numerous, especially in the limber 

 bordering streams, and not infrequently visiting the gardens of 

 selectors and other's. 



The birds were then (September, 1894) pairing, or had paired, but 

 wo were unable to discover in the numerous red-gums on the flat, or 

 along the watercourses, the eggs, which were new to science. However, 

 Mr. W. White, with a relative, wiio happened t-o be out collecting 

 dui'ing the same month in the Flinders Range, South Australia, kindly 

 forwarded me a set of four eggs, which specimens are herein described. 

 They were taken on 20th September, 1894, from a hole under aai 

 elbow of a large red-gum ( Euciiliiptiix) growing in a grassy vale in the 

 Warrabra Forest, which is 200 odd miles north of Adelaide. 



