52 Sonic Notes on Kcc^i>ig Parrakccts. 



Pkxnaxt's Parrakket (I'latyccycus clcgaiis). Next to 

 the Rosella, the most freely imported species; the adult in its 

 rich plumage of crimson and blue is a strikingly handsome 

 l)ird. No member of ihe family shows to better advantage at 

 liberty. A pair gliding with lazy, graceful flight across an 

 open space against a background -of green trees, or sitting 

 among bare branches with tlie winter sun shining on them, 

 is a sight not easily forgotten. (3nly birds thoroughly steady 

 and accustomed to aviary life should be released, as newly 

 imported ones are given to straying, even after they have 

 apparently quite settled down. The sexes are alike in colour, 

 but the female has a decidedly smaller head and narrow^er beak 

 and after a little experience it becomes an easy matter to sex 

 even single birds by this difference. On first leaving the nest 

 young birds are normally green with a little red round the 

 throat and some blue in the wings and tail. Red feathers make 

 their appearance in an irregular fashion among the green until 

 the first moult, when the whole of the remaining green plumage 

 is discarded. Pennants are double-brooded. Like the 

 Rosella, P. clcgaiis shows considerable local variation, some 

 races having much more black in the plumage than others. In 

 the north a very small form occurs, but I have never met wit'i 

 it in captivity. 



Port Adelaide Parrakket (Platyccrcus adelaidac). 

 Somewhat smaller than the Pennant, the Port Adelaide 

 parrakeet will I suspect prove to be nothing but a hybrid 

 between that bird and the yellow-rump. In all its character- 

 istics it is intermediate between the two species and although it 

 breeds true to type, it is common to meet some individuals 

 almost as red as Pennants and others almost as yellow as 

 Yellow-rumps. Some Adelaides are very handsome, reminding 

 one in their plumage of the rich and varied tints of an autumn 

 landscape. Young birds in immature dress are often mistaken 

 for, and sold as, young Pennants, but they may easily be 

 distinguished by their smaller size and by the distinctly 

 yelloAvish olive tint of their feathers. Young Pennants are 

 deep leaf green and such red feathers as they possess are ricii 

 crimson and not brick red or pinkish red as in the case of 



