658 NESTS A.VD EGGS OF AUSTHAUAN BIRDS. 



They were breeding in Jul}' and August, and numbers of eggs and young 

 birds were seen. On July 26th, Mr. G. L. Jones took young birds fully 

 fledged from a hollow limb, in which he foiuid four nests. Two of the 

 latter contained fresh eggs. Other nestlings were seen on August 26th. 

 As these birds require to drink frequently, their presence was always noted 

 and their covu'se watched. They travel immense distances to feed, and 

 in the vicinity of Johanna Springs flocks of several thousands were seen 

 going to some favotuite feeding-place soon after simrise. On throe 

 occasions Mr. Keartland saw a beautiful yellow bird flying in the flock. 

 Tliese abnormal birds were described as being as richly coloured as 

 Norwich Canaries. Incubation lasts about twenty days, and the young 

 remain in the nest about five weeks. 



When in the Gulf of Carpentaria district, some years ago, 

 Dr. W. Macgillivray recollects a remarkable occurrence of these little 

 PaiTots coming in such numbers along the scantily-timbered creeks, that 

 all ordinary holes and spouts soon became occupied, and some birds had 

 to take to hollow logs upon the ground, wherein they nested side by 

 side ; all stages from fresh eggs to young birds being seen in the 

 same log. 



529. — Pezoporus formosus, Latham. — (441) 

 GROUND PARRAKEET. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v., pi. 46. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xx., p. 596. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Campbell : Victorian Naturalist 



(1887) ; North : Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. Wales, vol. ii., 2nd 



ser., p. 410 (1887). 



Geographical Disfrihufitin. — South Queensland (?), New South 

 Wales, Victoria, South and West Australia and Tasmania, including the 

 Furnoaux Group. 



Nest. — A somewhat deep hollow in the ground, evenly lined with 

 fine grass, &c., under a tussock of giass — usually a button-grass tussock 

 in Tasmania. A nest in the Australian Museum is composed of rushes 

 and wire-grass, bitten into .suitable lengths, bent and roughly interwoven 

 into a platform about 4i inches in diameter and about half-an-inch 

 thick. 



Eggn. — Clutch, three to four; round in form ; texture of .shell fine ; 

 surface glossy ; colour, white. Dimensions in inches of a clutch : 

 (1) ]-ll X -8, (2) 1-1 X -87, (3) 1-09 x -9. 



Ohservations. — This most interesting and purely teiTcstrinl fonn of 

 PaiTot is likely soon to become extinct. Not onlv arc its native haunts 

 b-'ing destroyed, but such vciTnin as foxes and wild cats prowl through 

 the country. 



