Notes on Barraband's Parrakeets.



09



was barred. The spotted plumage appears as they lose their down,

but at the end of the first year many of their mottled feathers, which

have got worn and ragged, are gradually shed, and new r feathers, as

a rule without bars, take their place. . . . In a clutch of young


birds from the same nest some are spotted and some are not, and

some only faintly so ; therefore I do not think D. irroratus can stand

even as a variety.”


In correspondence we have received from him he adds :

“ Although my article in the ‘ Emu ' was written many years ago, all

my subsequent experience shows that this bird does not exist. I

have had birds from West and South Australia since I wrote.”


We recollect this dialogue from a long-extinct musical comedy :


“ Good old ‘ has been ’!


Better be a ‘ lias-been ’ than a ‘ never was ’ ! ”


Such is the epitaph of the Spotted Emu; aviculturally

speaking, it is a “ never was.”



NOTES ON BARRABAND’S PARRAKEETS

(POLYTELIS BARRABANDI).


By The Marquis of Tavistock.


The two Polytelis Parrakeets and their ally Spathopterus (the

Princess of Wales’s Parrakeet) form a small and very distinct group

among Australian birds. They have no affinity udiatever with the

Broad-tails, little with the Lorikeets, and their nearest relatives

have been considered to be the Palceornis Parrakeets of the Old

World, from which, however, they also differ in several respects.

They are not well known in captivity, nor as much prized as they

deserve to he (I except S. cilexandrce), for they are beautiful birds,

more gentle and more tolerant of close confinement than the Rosella

family, and, unhappily, not unlikely to become extinct.


Barraband’s Parrakeet, or the “ Green Leek ” as it is called

in its native land, is, notwithstanding its very restricted habitat,

the most frequently imported species. The plumage of the cock is

brilliant green, with a slightly bluish tint on the flight feathers and



