656 NESTJ; AA'D EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The Swift-flying Lorikeet still continues to visit Tasmania regularly, 

 in numbers small or gi-eat. It follows the flowering eucalypts wher- 

 ever they bloom, which blooming is irregular or according to seasons. 

 We had quite an imiptioii of these birds (at least I took them to be 

 this species from what I can recollect) at Malvem, Victoria, when the 

 red-gum trees were in flower. The birds were in hundreds. We (other 

 boys and I) shot a string of them to make a Parrot pie. 



When shot, the birds, although dead, used to hang from the branch, 

 head downwards, for a considerable time before the feet released their 

 grip. Proceeding home, the string we had shot became besmeared with 

 the hone}' that e.xuded freely from their mouths, and had a heavy 

 nauseous odour. 



Gould found these Lorikeets breeding about midway between 

 Hobart and Brown's River, but unfortunately he did not obtain eggs, 

 in consequence of the birds nesting in holes of the loftiest and most 

 inaccessible trees. 



Mr. A. E. Brent, who states he has taken eggs from many nests 

 of the Swift Lorikeet, says he never found less than four to a clutch, 

 and sometimes as many as six.* 



Principal laying months November and December. 



528. — Melopsittacus undulatus, snaw. — (439) 

 BETCHERRYGAH OR WARBLING GRASS PARRAKEET. 



Fif:iire. — Gould : Birds of .-\ustralia, fol., vol. v., pi. 44. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., \o\. xx., p. 594. 



Prnnout Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of .Australia {1848) , 



al<;n Handbook, vol. ii., p. 82 (1865); North: Austn. Mus. 



Cat., p. 264 (iSSq). 



Geographicfil DixfrihiitiDii. — Australia in general. 



Nest. — Within a liole or hollow spout of a tree. 



^.'7.'/'*- — Clutch, five to eight, one instance known of nine; round 

 oval in shape ; texture of sliell fine ; sm-face without gloss ; colour, pure 

 white, occasionally stained witli wood dust. Dimensions in inches of a 

 maximum clutch; (1) -77 x "58, (2) -76 x -6. (3) -7.5 x -61. (4) -75 x -6. 

 (5) -74 X -6, (6) -74 x -59, (7) -72 x -58. 



Observations. — One need hardly give a description of this little Parrot, 

 which is so well known in its dress of pale greenish-yellow, each feather 

 having a crescent-shaped, dark brownish mark near the extremity and an 

 under surface of bright green. The face and throat are yellow, curiously 

 ornamrnted on cacli check with a small patch of tlie richest liluc The 



•These numbers clash with the experience of collectors on the mainland. 

 where the bird lays two or three eggs, usually only two. 



