FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



coverts, and a coniiguoi^ patch on the sides, are briglii, 

 red ; the crown of the head is black, shadnig into blue ; 

 the shoulders and base of the primaries are also blue ; 

 the tail is deep red, shading into blue towards the tip : 

 the under parts are yellowieh-green ; the beak is 

 yellowish, the legs are grey. Female smaller and duller, 

 with narrower beak, but with a broader and shorter 

 terminal hook. Hab., South-Easteru Australia, from 

 the Wide Bay district to Victoria and Tasmania. 



Gould says that it is "a migratory species, passing 

 the summer and breeding season only in the more 

 southern parts of the Australian Continent and Tas- 

 mania, and retiring northwards tor the remainder of thi 

 year. During September and the four following months 

 "it is not only abundant in all the gum forests of 

 Tasmania, biit is very common in the shrubberies and 

 gardens at Hobart Town. It is frequently to be seen 

 on the gum-trees bordering the streets, within a few 

 feet of the heads of the passing inhabitants, and SJ 

 intent u\K>a gathering the lioney from the fresh-blown 

 flowers which dailv expand, as abnost entirely to dis- 

 regard their presence. The tree to which it is so eagerly 

 attracted is the Eucahiptus glhhosus, cultivated speci- 

 mens of which appear to have finer blossoms than those 

 in their native forests. It is certainly the finest of the 

 Eiicah/pti I havecver seen, and when its pendent branches 

 are covered with thick clusters of j>ale yellow blossoms, 

 presents a most beautiful aftpearance; theee blossoms 

 are so charged with saccharine matter that the birds 

 soon fill themselves with honey, even to their very 

 throats ; several of those I ehot, upon being held up by 

 their feet, discharged from their months a stream ot 

 this liquid to the amount of a dessertspoonful. Small 

 flocks of from four to twenty in number are also fre- 

 quently to be feen passing over the town, chasing each 

 other,' like the Swift of Europe, whence in all proba- 

 bility has arisen its Colonial name. Sometimes these 

 flights appear to be taken for the sake of exercise, or in 

 mere playfulness of disposition, -while at others the 

 birds are' pas.'iing from one garden to another, or pi'o- 

 ceeding from tlie town to the forests at the foot of 

 Uownt Wellington, or vice verm. Their plumage eo 

 closely assimilatee in colour to the leaves of the trees 

 they 'freciuent. and they, moreover, creep so quietly 

 y«t actively from branch to branch, clinging m every 

 possible position, that were it not for their movements 

 and the tivmbling of the leaves, it would be difficult to 

 perceive them w-ithout a minute examination of the 

 tree upon Avhich they have alighted. I found them 

 breeding aSbout midway between Hobart Town and 

 Brown's River, but was not fortunate enough to obtain 

 their eggs, in consequence of their being laid in holes 

 of the loftie* and most inaeccssiible treee. They are 

 said to be two in number, and jierfectly w^hite." 



Euss sa>-8 that "since 1879 this species has been 

 imported now and again during the .spring months m 

 several pairs, at other times rarely. If accustomed to 

 seed® it is long lived. Altogether an amiable room 

 companion. In the bird-room gentle and graceful, yet 

 always restless, and qnarrelw)me towards all other in- 

 ha)bitant6. It has not the deafening cry of the Mountain 

 LiOTV, only occasionally the male cries tolerably shrilly 

 as he sits on a branch with a peculiar fluttering of his 

 beautifully-coloured wings, ilale and female, the latter 

 more softly, possess a pleasing yet little varying singing 

 utterance. T]ie.y are fond of cUmbing. fly little. Close 

 cage-'bars are necessary, becanse they recklessly force 

 their heads through. Not yet bred.'" 



It is a question whether this bird should not have 

 been regarded as Jin aberrant form of the family 

 Loriidce. to which it exhibits .otrong affinity. Tlie first 

 two sipecimeaiB to reach the London Zoological Gardens 



were piu'chased in 1853. the last pair (recorded in the 

 ninth edition of the List of Animals) in 1884. 



The genue Melopsittacus has narrow and pointed tail- 

 feathei-s, and the upper mandible is not notched'; it 

 contains one species, the Budgerigar, which in cap- 

 tivity can ibe kept upon eanaryseed alone, but I think 

 it does ibetter when supplied also with mdllet and a few 

 oats. When Ibreeddng bread soaked in cold waiter and 

 then squeezed as dry as possible, sliould be given, a* 

 well ae cliickweed or grass in flower, 



BuDGEEiG-iR (Mel(/j>siUacus undulalus). 

 The oock bird has the crown oif the head cowslip 

 yellow ; the back of the head, cheeks, mantle, and 

 wing-coverta gi-eyisih yellow barred with black, th& 

 feathers of the shoulder beang sliglitly tinged with 

 emerald green here and there ; the chin and throat 

 bright sulphur yellow. An irregular streak composed 

 ot ultramarine blue and black spots separates the barred 

 grey of the dlieek fronr the brigilit yellmv of the throat; 

 this streak is followed at the back of the throat by 

 tw^o or tliree latei'al black spots ; the breast, belly, 

 thighs, and under tail-coverts are of the most intensely 



brilliaint emerald gi'een colour; the back and upper 

 tadl-covert-s are ot a similar, but slightly bluer, green; 

 primaries deep gi'ey, edged yellow, and with greenish 

 outer web ; the two middle tail-feathers are deep blue, 

 slightly greenish towards the base, the remainder bright 

 yello^\', bixxidly tipped with dull blue shading into pea- 

 cock-gi-een, the borders of the outer web also washed 

 with pale emerald-green ; the cere, in the breeding 

 season, is bright blue, but after that .season it becomes 

 much dulled (so that the inexperienced at this time 

 sometimes mistake cocks for hens) ; the beak is white 

 and the legs grey, irides straw w:liitish. The hen has 

 a slightly .shorter beak, the cere being pale blue with 

 v.'hite borders when not breeding, but this changes 

 to a coffee-brown colour in the breeding season ; the 

 head is paler, the crown being pale primrose yellow, 

 and the sides of head and throat slightly less vivid, the 

 black barring is not quite, so .sharply defined, and the 

 green of the under-parts is just perceptibly yellower. 

 Haib. , Australia from tire Gulf of C-arpentaria and Port 

 Deniscm on the Eaist, through the interior, to New 

 South Wales, Victoria, West and Soiith-West .^ustrtalia. 



This well-known and abundant little Parrot is some- 

 times called the "t'ndulated Grass Parrakeet." 



Gould says ("Handbook," Vol. II., pp. 82. 83) :— " On 

 arriving at Brezi, to the north of the Liverpool Plains, 

 in the Ijeginning of December, I found my.self sur- 

 rounded (by numbers, breedting in all the hollow spouts 

 ot the large Eucalypti ibcrdering the Mokai ; and on 

 crossing the plains between that river and the Peel, 



