THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 143 



tame, and early in October last showed signs of breeding. 

 Whenever the male secured a choice morsel of thistle or any 

 other dainty he ate as much as he could, and then, after 

 displaying many marks of affection, proceeded to feed his mate 

 in the same manner that a pigeon would its young, until he had 

 emptied his crop into hers. The hen bird made repeated 

 examinations of the hollow log in which other parrots had 

 previously bred, but it did not seem to meet with her approval, 

 However, on 30th October I noticed her sitting on the floor of 

 the cage, under the log, and soon afterwards an egg was lying 

 there. I put a box about 6 inches square just where the egg 

 was, first putting some earth and sawdust into it to give it weight 

 and form a nest. I placed the egg in the centre of the nest, and 

 she immediately sat on it, turning round and round many times. 

 On the 31st she laid another egg on the floor, which I put with 

 the other. As the box was evidently too small, I broke away one 

 side to within an inch of the bottom. The next two eggs were 

 laid on the 2nd and 3rd November in the nest, and the female 

 commenced to sit. The male now behaved in a most eccentric 

 manner. Whenever he saw anyone approaching with choice 

 food he would Hy backwards and forwards from the perch to the 

 nest many times, occasionally making a playful peck at his mate. 

 After eating the food he at once flew on to the side of the nest 

 and fed her. The female was only seen to leave the nest three 

 times in fourteen days. The male never sat. This I believe to 

 be very characteristic of many of our parrots. Whenever I have 

 disturbed one from its nest in the bush, it has invariably been 

 the female. Whilst the hen birds are sitting the males form 

 flocks by themselves, and, as occasion requires, repair to the 

 nest to feed the female. After my bird had been sitting a 

 fortnight two of the eggs were unfortunately broken, both of 

 which contained birds. The remaining two were not fertile. 



Whilst writing the above I thought it would be interesting to 

 exhibit a few skins of these birds from West Kimberley, 

 Queensland, and New South Wales, for the sake of comparison, 

 as Gould separated the north-western from those obtained on 

 the eastern side of the continent into two species. To the 

 former he gave the name of Ptiates coccineopterus, and to the 

 latter P. erythrojjterus. 



In this, I believe, he is mistaken. He mentioned several trivial 

 variations in plumage and size, but one has only to keep a pair 

 of birds from anywhere along the eastern or northern parts of 

 Australia in captivity for a few months, and all the changes 

 alluded to may be noticed. When the feathers are new the 

 colours are bright, but as they become old they fade and lose 

 much of their former brilliancy. With regard to the size, I 

 cannot find any difference except what age will account for. I 



