^•"i™-] CIlISliOl-M, The -Lost" Panuiisc l\iyrot. 5 



of the rest of the ])luniage, make him 'a joy for ever'." C(niUl 

 admiration be more whole- hearted than this? "But," adds the 

 reverend writer, "handsome is as handsome does, and I regret 

 that I cannot give any of those I have ke])t a good character as 

 a cage bird. Tliey are very shy, and the cock is much given to 

 (h'i\ ing about the hen." 



It would ai)i)ear that in those days nothing was known in 

 England of the unusual nesting habits of the Paradise Parrot. 

 Greene, never guessing that the object of his greatest admira- 

 tion was addicted to nesting in termites' mounds, laid it down that 

 Pccoporiis fonnosiis (now P. wallicus) was the onlv Australian 

 Parrot that did not breed in trees. After observing that odd 

 specimens of piilcJierriiinis had been known to exist for at 

 least two years in outdoor aviaries in England, Greene adds 

 that "in Germany eggs have been produced, but as yet no young 

 of this si)ecies have been reared in cajUivity, at least to our 

 knowledge." ( )n this jioint, Dutton remarks that a ])air he had 

 was "most anxious" to bore into the wall of a room in which 

 they were placed ; but instead of encouraging this laudable de- 

 sire, he sent both to the Zoological Gardens, where they died. 

 Greene and Dutton are in accord regarding the good health of 

 the species in cajnivity, the former stating also that he knew of 

 "few foreign birds more amiable and inoffensive in their habits, 

 or more susceptible to being completely tamed." He was on 

 less solid ground in adding that "these slim and elegantly-.shaped 

 birds are natives of New South Wales, where they feed on the 

 honey and pollen of flowers, fiies, and small insects, and in win- 

 ter on such insects and seeds as they can find." 



Many years before the date of Greene's book Queensland 

 settlers had become more or less familiar with the breechng 

 habits of Pscplwtus puIcJicrriiuus. To them it was, variously, 

 the Ground Parrot, Ground Rosella, Beautiful Parrot, Elegant 

 Parrot, and Ant-hill Parrot, to which multitude of titles was 

 added subsecjuently the name of Scarlet-shouldered Parrot. In 

 many districts it was a favourite cage-bird, though, perhaps, no 

 more so than outside its own country. The Barnard family, of 

 Coomooboolaroo, near Rockhampton, were among the earliest 

 people with ornithological leanings to take note of the nesting- 

 habits of the "Ant-hill" Parrot.* When Carl Lumholtz, the 

 Norwegian author of Aiuonc/ Cannibals (London, 1890), was 

 at Duaringa in 1881, he was introduced by the Barnard boys to 

 the burrows of the beautiful bird in termites' mounds, and of 

 these he y)enned an interesting description. On another occasion, 

 near the Nogoa River, Eumholtz had an ex]icriciicc with a ])air 



* Some writers have overlooked the fact that Silvester Diggles, in his 

 unfinished Ornithology of Australia (issued about 1868) stated of this bird: 

 "The eggs (five in number) are deposited on the bare ground in a deserted 

 anthill, the entrance being a small hole in the side. The young are covered 

 with a thick white down, and much resemble those of hawks." 



