134 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



immediately commence flying about in a very wild manner, 

 uttering at the same time a loud piercing cry of alarm ; the 

 eggs are three or four in number, of a pearly white, and 

 nearly round in form, being eleven lines long by ten broad. 



So much difference exists in the plumage of the sexes that 

 Gilbert states he was for some time induced to regard them 

 as specifically distinct — an error into which I had myself 

 previously fallen when describing the female as a new spe- 

 cies in the * Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' quoted 

 above ; " but upon closer observation," adds Gilbert, " I soon 

 satisfied myself that the diff'erence of plumage was merely 

 sexual, the dissection of a large number of specimens fully 

 proving that those with a ring round the neck are males and 

 those without it females." 



The male has a line under the eye and ear-coverts deep 

 glossy black ; head, occiput, wings, and tail rich deep prus- 

 sian blue ; primaries and secondaries white at the base, form- 

 ing a conspicuous spot when the wings are spread ; for the 

 remainder of their length these feathers are black, margined 

 externally with light prussian bbie ; immediately before the 

 eye an oval spot of white ; collar surrounding the back of the 

 neck and all the under surface white, tinged with buff on the 

 lower part of the flanks ; back and upper tail-coverts verditer 

 blue ; scapularies verditer green, both these colours bounded 

 near the white collar with prussian blue ; under surface of 

 the wing white, the tips of the coverts black ; under surface 

 of the tail black ; bill black, the basal portion of the under 

 mandible yellowish white ; tarsi black ; inner side of the feet 

 and back of the tarsi ash-grey ; irides very dark brown. 



The general colours of the female are similar to those of 

 the male, but she differs from her mate in being entirely 

 destitute of the white collar at the back of the neck, which 

 part is deep prussian blue, thus uniting the blue of the occiput 

 and of the back ; in the tints being much less brilliant in the 

 back, being of a dull brownish verditer green, and in the 



