UPAI lIiJfrKliL'S. 10.' 



of Au,t,'ust, i.Syo, the existence of two li\ iiv^ birds in AJelaitle, which had been taken from a 

 nesting-place in a hollow branch of a tree by Mr. Ale.x. Ma^'are_v, at Crown Point, in Lat. 25 

 30' and Lonf^. 133 , about six hinuhed miles south fiom where the types were obtained. 



Later on Dr. IC. C. Stirling,', the Director of the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, who 

 accompanied tlie liarl of Kintore, the then Governor of South Australia, on his trip across the 

 continent from north to south, succeeded in shootinj,' three of these Farrakeets at Newcastle 

 Waters, and only about twenty miles from Howell's I'onds, wliere tlie type was uhtained in 1S62. 

 One of these birds procured by L)r. Stirlint;, an adult male, was received in exchauL^e by the 

 Trustees of the Australian Museum, and is now in the Reference Collection. 



In 1S94, a fine series was collected by the members of the Horn Scientitic Expedition, 

 at Glen I-Mith, in Central Australia, and tlie preceding description is taken from one ot 

 them, a fine old male, the nrost highly coloured and perfect specimen I have ever seen. It is 

 in the Reference Collection of the Australian Museum, and was presented with other specimens 

 obtained by the Expedition, by Mr. W. .\. Horn, through Professor \V. Baldwin Spencer, of 

 the University of Melbourne. Consequent upon an examination of these specimens, it was found 

 necessary to institute the genus Spathoptkkis for the reception of this species. The end of 

 the third primary of each wing of the adult male is singularly elongated, and terminates in a 

 spatule, the wing of the adult female is normal, and destitute of these adornments. The 



spatulate elongation extending from 

 the third ptimary of the adult male I'f 

 Spatlh'ptrni': ahxaiuiriC will at once serxe 

 t<j distinguish it from any other Aus- 

 tralian genus, and it more resembles 

 that seen on the lower wing of the 

 well known brilliant lilue and black 

 ( lueensland butterl1\-, Papilio ulysia, 

 Lmn. hrom the genus Pcti.VTKlis, 

 which it otherwise resembles, Spathop- 

 TitRL's may alsobefurtherdistinguished 

 by both sexes ha\ing the inner webs of 

 the lateral tail-feathers broadly mar- 

 gined with rose-red, while in Polvtei is the females alone have it. In 1896-7 Mr. G. A. 

 Keartland again obtained specimens, while a member of the Cahert Exploring Expedition, in 

 North-western Australia. Subsequently it was found breeding in Western Australia and Soutli 

 Australia, and living examples in captivity are now not the rarity they were a decade ago. C)f 

 those birds I have seen in confinement, next to their exceedingly delicate colouring what attracted 

 me most was their extremely loud, shrill and penetrating notes. There is an adult male in 

 perfect plumage in the Mounted Collection of the Australian Museum, presented to the Trustees 

 by Mr. .\ntliony Hordern, of Retford Hall, Darling I'oint. 



The food consists almost exclusively of small grass-seeds. Mr. E. Turner, to whom I 

 submitted the contents of the crop of one of these birds for examination, has referred the seeds 

 to the following species: — Ti-iodta mitclicllt, Benth., one of the Porcupine grasses: Dauthoiitia 

 hipiniitin, F. v. M., one of the Mulga grasses ; and Portnlaaa olciaua, Linn., or 'Purslane.' The 

 seeds of the latter plant Mr. Turner informs me were at one time used as an article of food by 

 the Aborigines of the interior of Australia. 



Mr. (3. A. Keartland writes me as follows; — " Spatluftiriis aUwandvce has a singular habit 

 of lying along the stout limbs of a tree like a lizard, instead of perching on a twig or 



Terminal portion of wing of adult male Spath^ipttiui 

 altwandriv (natural size). 



Ibis. 1N115. p. 339- 



