•220 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



centre, on the upper back; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 bright red, as well as f I'ont edge of wing ; feathers of 

 forehead red-brownish at base ; a red patch on the 

 throat ; flights below with blue inner webs ; tail below 

 blue ; beak black ; the base of upper mandible and cere 

 yellow ; feet yellow ; irides yellow. Female apparently 

 differing in having the red throat-patch narrower, 

 forming a longitudinal streak, sometimes orange-red. 

 Hab. , Sula Islands. 



I have discovered no account of the wild life. An 

 example was purchased by the London Zoological 

 Society in 1865, and no other seems to have come since ; 

 it is, therefore, perhaps hardly more worth mentioning 

 than Russ' alleged example of L. jjiisillus, excepting 

 that its identification is certain. It seems, from a note 

 in Salvadori's " Catalogue of the Parrots," that the 

 late George Gray mistook a young example of L. 

 galqulus for L. jmsillus, and Russ may have done the 

 same for all we know to the contrary. 



This concludes the present sub-family, and now we 

 pass on to the extremely popular Parrakeets of the 

 sub-family Platycercince. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SUB FAMILY PLATYCERCIN/E. 



(Broadtails, Horned Parrakeets and 

 many others). 



This group is characterised by a short, thick beak, 

 the upper mandible of which is usually swollen at the 

 eides and the lower mandible ludden by the fe^ithers 

 of the cheeks ; the cere is small, only surrounding the 

 nostrils and forming a sort of saddle over the culmen ; 

 tail rather long ; wings "pointed ; some of the outermost 

 primaries narrowed towards the tips. 



In the Broadtails (Plafi/cercus) the beak is distinctly 

 notched, and the feathers of the tail are broad and 

 not pointed at the tips. The species of this genus 

 range over Austiulia, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island, 

 and are mostly very brilliantly coloured, with the 

 feathers of the back black with broad borders, whicli 

 gives them a scale-like appearance. Tliey feed in their 

 wild state upon seeds, berriee, and sometimes in.oects 

 and their larvte. Their food in captivity should consist, 

 according to Mr. Seth-;Smith (" Paxraikeets," p. 158), 

 "of can,nryseed. hemp, oats and dari. pea-nuts, and 

 fruit, or green food, such as chickweed. groundsel, or 

 flowering grass. Some are fond of insects, and meal- 

 worms may he given occasionally, especially towards the 

 nesting season." The sexes are much alike in pattern 

 and colouring, but the females are generally sligihtly 

 smaller, duller, and with less swollen upper mandible. 



Masters' Parrakeet (Platycercus mastersianu.-) 

 is doubtless a variety of Pennant's Parrakeet 



Pennant's Parrakeet (Platycercus elegans). 

 The adult male has the head, neck, under surface, 

 rump, and upper tail coverts rich crimson ; the feathers 

 of the back and scapularies black, broadly margined 

 with crimson : cheeks and shoulders blue ; greater wing 

 coverts pale lilue; primaries and secondaries black, 

 with the basal half of their outer webs deep blue ; the 

 four centre tail feathers bluish green, shading into blue 

 on their margins and tips ; remainder of tail feathers 

 •black on the inner webs for three-quarters of their 



length, deep blue on the outer webs for nearly the same 

 length, and largely tipped with pale blue on both sides ; 

 ibeak, horn-coloured ; legs, blackish brown ; iris of eye, 

 dark brown. 



The female very closely resembles tihe male, but the 

 crimson of the upper parte and head is less vivid and 

 the tail greener. The entire bird is slightly smaller, 

 and its bead is a tiifle rounder ; iher beak is not so. 

 much swollen in the middle. Haib., Eastern and 

 Southeim Australia ; especially common in New South 

 Wales ; pixabably introduced into Norfolk Island. 



This bird, according to Gould, is found on grassy hills 

 and in bushes, esjiecially of the Liverpool range and 

 simiilar districts ; its natural food consists of berries, 

 grass seeds, and sometimes insects and caterpillars, to 

 obtain which it descends to the bases of the hills and 

 open glades. It runs rapidly over the ground, but its 

 flight is not enduring ; it ibreeds in holes in the large 

 gimi trees, especially those on hill.«ides within bTUsh- 

 wood, the cedar brushes appearing to be its favourites. 

 Its breeding season extends from September to Novem- 

 ber ; it lavs from four to seven white eggs on the rotten 

 wood at the bottom of the holes. The song of this 

 B{>ecies is said to be not unpleasant, though at times 

 it is a little given to screaming in a mild way. It is 

 tolerably peaceable, tractable, and quite capable of 

 being bred in a good-sized a\naTy ; in fact, there are 

 not a few cases on record of its having been reared 

 in confinement ; indeed. Dr. Russ says that it has ofterf 

 iheen bred, but that it nai'^ly rears its young satis- 

 factorily. It is an absolutely "hardy bird, quite capa;ble 

 of resisting the cold of our severest winters in an 

 outdoor aviary. When breeding, this and all the 

 Platijce.rci should have an aviary to themselves^ — that 

 is to sav, to each pair of 'birds. 



The Pennant's Parrakeet is tolerably freely imported 

 and not excessively dear ; the first pair to reach the 

 London Zoological Gardens was presented in 1861, since 

 which date many others have been added to the collec- 

 tion at Regent's Park. 



Adelaide Parrakeet {Ploti/rcrcus acleJaiclw). 



Differs from the preceding species in the brick or 

 orange-red colouring mixed with yellowish, in place of 

 the crimson of Pennant's Parrakeet ; the black feathers 

 of the back and those of the under parts with yellowish 

 or huffish edges, as also the red feathers of the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts ; the blue of the cheeks rather 

 paler, and the centre tail feathers decidedly green, 

 slightly washed with blue. The sexes differ exactly as 

 in P. ele//ans. Hab., Southern Australia and the in- 

 terior of the Continent. 



Mr. Gould says of this species : — " The Platycercus 

 (idelaidensin at first caused me oonsiderable perplexity 

 from its close similarity in some stages of its plumage 

 to the /-". pennaiitii: as in that species the plumage of 

 the young for the first season is wholly green, which 

 colouring gradually gives place to pale orange-red on the 

 head, rump, and upper surface, the scapularies and back 

 feathers being margined with the same, but which soon 

 disappears, and gives place to dull yellow on the flanks 

 and olive-yellow on the upper surface, the scapularies 

 and back feathers in the mature dress being edged with 

 ,yellowish-buff and violet. It was only by killing 

 numerous examples in all their various stages of 

 plumage, from the nestling to the adult, that I was 

 enabled to determine the fact of its being a distinct 

 species. 



"When I visited the interior of South Australia in 

 the winter of 1838 I found the adults associated in 

 small groups of from six to twenty in number : while 

 near the coast, between Holdfast Bay and the Port of 



