Vol. Ill 



1904 . Revieiv. ^gj 



Review. 



PARRAKEETS. 

 [Parrakeets; being a Practical Handbook to Those Species Kept in Captivity 

 By David Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U. London: R. H. Porter, 7 Princes- 

 street, Cavendish Square W. (Pp. 1-2S1, with indices, contents, and appendix.)] 



The sixth number of this admirable work is to hand, and com- 

 pletes a book in which, as the author in his preface says, " it 

 has been the aim . . . . to make .... a complete 

 monograph of the imported species of Parrakeets." The three 

 coloured plates in the issue now noticed are up to the standard 

 of those in previous parts. The birds figured are the Splendid 

 Grass-Parrakeet (Ncopkcma splendid a), the Turquoisine or 

 Chestnut-shouldered Grass-Parrakeet (N. pulc/tella), the Golden- 

 fronted New Zealand Parrakeet (Cyanorkamphus auriceps), the 

 Antipodes Island Parrakeet (C. unicolor), and the Varied Lori- 

 keet (Ptilosclera versicolor), all from the pencil of Mr. H. Good- 

 child. In depicting the last-named species the artist has 

 doubtless placed pictorial effect before scientific accuracy. The 

 withered lemon colour of the eucalyptus blossoms, and of the 

 midribs of the leaves employed, to say nothing of the peculiar 

 blue of the leaves, would be hard to match in Australia, which 

 was once supposed to be the home of this botanical genus. The 

 ''systematic index" shows that some 130 species of a family 

 inwhich, " scientifically speaking, there is no difference between 

 a ' Parrot ' and a ' Parrakeet ' " have been dealt with, and by 

 an appendix British information on the subject is brought up 

 to date. In the appendix Mr. Seth-Smith says of a specimen of 

 Masters Parrakeet — " The only difference I could detect 

 between this bird and a Pennant .... was in the yellow 

 centres to some of the tail feathers ; " and, as to the Red-mantled 

 Parrakeet, he quotes from Mr. Johnstone, who, in August, 1903, 

 records that two fine Red-mantled Parrakeets had been'" bred 

 from a cock Pennant and a hen Red Rosella." Still later, in a 

 letter to Mr. A. J. Campbell, just received, the author of the 

 book under review writes :—" I am now perfectly convinced 

 that Platycercus erythropeplus of Salvadori is a hybrid between 

 P. eximius and P. elegans, and that P. master si anus is merely 

 a sickly variety of P. elegans." Australasian ornithologists have 

 always been doubtful as to the validity of these species, and will 

 now be more confirmed in their opinion. The complete work 

 of Mr. Seth-Smith is offered by the publisher, bound in art 

 linen, gilt top, at 40s. 



About Members. 



We heartily welcome Mr. Thomas Carter (late of Point Cloates) 

 and his English wife back to Australia. Mr. Carter is again 

 taking up pastoral pursuits, but, in lieu of the dry north-west, in 

 the more genial south-west province of Western Australia. 



