All rights reserved. AUGUST, 1911. 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE 



JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



The Queen Alexandra Parrakeet. 



{Spathopterus {or Polytclis) Alexandrce) . 



By Hubert D. Astley, M.A., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. 



No more g'orgeous colourings are to be found amongst 

 birds than in the Parrot tribe, but the Queen Alexandra Par- 

 rakeet stands alone for the marvellous combination of delicate 

 tints. The bird is like an opal, like a sunset where colours 

 ai-e all subdued yet brilliant. Neither is it because of colour- 

 ing only that this parrot pleases the eye so strongly, the form 

 is exceedingly graceful, and the flight astonishingly beautiful. 

 Gould, in his great work " Birds of Australia " (Supplement) 



wrote : 



" I feel assured that the discovery of an additional species 

 "of the lovely genus Polytelis will be hailed with pleasure hy 

 " lall ornithologists, and that they will readily assent to its bearing 

 " the specific nanae of Alexandres. The Polytelis alexandrm is in 

 " eveiiy respect a typical example oT Its genus, having the delicate 

 " bill and lengthened tail characteristic of the other species of that 

 '" form. About the same size as P. harrabandi it differs from 

 " that species in having the crown hlue and the lower part of the 

 " cheeks rose-pink instead of yellow." 



I have before now protested against the straw-splitting 

 nomenclature by which this Parrakeet has been separated 

 from its true family and been given the name of Spathopterus, 

 and this because of the spatulated tips to the wing feathers— 

 the third primaries — in the male bird. 



If the Green Leek (Barraband's) and the Kock Pebbler 

 (Folytelis inelanura) are to be named Polytelis as they have 

 been, then certainly the Queen Alexandra is their first cousin. 

 The whole style and shape, the colouring of the under 

 part of the tail, all show that this bird is of the same family, 

 yet it has been separated because of a small extra ornamenta- 

 tion to be found in the male bird only. 



That ornamentation is not, I would submit, of suflTici- 

 ent importance to divide the bird from its family, or to alter 

 the title given it by Gould. First come, first served! It is 



