42 LORIID.E. 



young Blue Mountain Parrakeets, and my black boy tells me of another lot of young. As we 

 are now almost in the middle of winter, with the thermometer for the last week at daylight 

 ranging from 44° to 47', it seems a strange time for these birds to breed, the more so as 1 )ecember 

 and January are their usual breeding months here." And again on the 14th November, 1889: — 

 " Many young frii'liogloiiiii novie-hoUiMidue now flying about." Also on the nth October, 1895 • — 

 " Blue Mountain Parrakeets are \ery plentiful, feeding in a blossoming Bean-tree within a few 

 yards of the house. 1 got a very young one a couple of days ago." 



Mr. H. G. Barnard sends me the following notes from Bimbie, I'uaringa, (Queensland: — 

 " Trichoglosiiis noVir-hollaudiic breeds from June to December, and lays two eggs for a sitting, 

 the site selected being a hollow spout in any species of l-^ucalyptus, dead or alive, the eggs being 

 placed from one to two feet from the entrance. When the female is sitting the male bird 

 collects honey from the flowering trees, returning to the nest shortly before sundown, enters the 

 hollow, where he remains for a short time while presumably feeding the female. Both birds 

 then leave the hole, returning just after sundown, when they re-enter and remain for the night. 

 At one time these birds bred freely in this district, but I have not seen a nest since the big 

 drought of 1902." 



From Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge writes 

 me as follows: — " Triclwi^lossus noviv-hoUandia\ usually called here the PJlue Mountain I'arrot, is 

 plentifully dispersed throughout the Clarence River District. The nesting place is in the hole 

 of a branch of the Blue or Spotted Gum tree, and sometimes in the bole of the tree itself. The 

 nesting season commences early, the first set of eggs being laid during the first or second week in 

 June, and they rear successive young till the end of December or January. The eggs are always 

 two in number, and are laid on the debris of decayed wood. At this time they are generally 

 found in pairs, but later on, early in January or February, they assemble in large flocks, and do 

 considerable damage to the young corn by tearing away the husk and leaving the cob exposed 

 to the weather, when it soon rots. They also obtain their food among the blossoms of our 

 Eucalypts, but these birds no longer remain to be shot as they did in Gould's time, and sometimes 

 I have found them difficult of approach." 



Mr. (j. A. Keartland writes me as follows from Melbourne, \ ictoria : -"About thirty-six years 

 ago Trii ho/:;Iiissus mn'n--Iii>l/inhli,t was very numerous near Melbourne. In fact these birds used to 

 come in large tlocks and feed on the blossom of the Plue Gum (Eucalyptus f^lobuliis ) which then 

 flourished in the Parliament Reserve and other public gardens. They suddenly ceased coming, 

 the last time I saw them in numbers being in 1874, when they were a perfect pest in the orchards 

 at Dandenong, and I shot forty-five without moving from one spot near a couple of large Pear 

 trees, the fruit of which they completely destroyed. Since then I have only seen three birds in 

 all my rambles near Melbourne, but I am informed they are numerous at certain seasons in the 

 neighbourhood of Casterton, in the Western District." 



While resident at Hamilton, \ictoria. Dr. W. Macgillivray sent me the following notes: — 

 " Ti'irhflf^lossits novir-lioUandiu- is numerous throughout the district, and destroys a great quantity 

 of fruit annually, and is not at all particular as to the kind of fruit, seeming able to assimilate 

 the hardest Pear as easily as the softest Plum. This is not to be wondered at when one finds 

 that this bird, which in a state of nature lives on nothing but the honey of the Eucalyptus, can 

 so adapt itself to altered conditions of life as to live on grain in captivity. I have a record of 

 one which lived in a stuall aviary for seventeen years, never getting any other food than wheat 

 and canary seed. The Blue Gums in the streets of Coleraine bloomed continuously from May 

 until November one year, and provided during the whole of this period a continued feast for 

 immense numbers of these birds, as well as other honey-eaters. Adult birds captured by being 

 trapped or stunned, li\e well in capti\ity, and soon become reconciled to their lot." 



