10() I'MriArin.F,. 



thin branch. In Central Aub.traha we only met witli these birds on the I'lth |une, 1^94, 

 between Glen Edith and Peering' Creek. 'I'he late Professor Ralph 'J'ate inlbrnied nie 

 that he had seen a stran^'e looking Parrakeet in some Casuaniui near at hand, and after j<oing 

 about two hundred yards in the direction indicated, saw what appeared to me a CalopsHtacus 

 novu--hiilh]ihhu- llying towards me, and which alighted on the branch of a tree, and notwithstanding 

 the sparse foliage I had to look carefully for some minutes before I found it. fmmediately the 

 shot was tired a number of these beautiful birds flew out of the tree in all directions, in twos, 

 threes and fours. Five birds tlew into one tree, but I had to walk round it before I saw them. 

 At last four heads were \isible just raised from the thick limb, the bodies and tails lymg 

 horizontally along the timber. Subsc'iuentiy Mr. Charles Pritchard, who accompanied the 

 party as ^;old prospectior, inlormed nie that a breeding-place had been discovered on the 

 Hale Kiver, and in sending me three eggs of a set of li\e wrote me from that locality 

 under date 15th November, iXq^, as follows : — ' This is the first time on record that they have 

 made this their breeding ground, but I do not think they have come to stay, and perhaps in a 

 year or so they may be as raie as e\er. They tra\el in flocks, from one pair up to nearly any 

 number, are \ery tame, feeding about the grass near the camp, and seem in no way afraid of 

 people, cattle or horses. They breed in hollow trees, laying five eggs, and several pairs of birds 

 occupy holes in the same tree. They are nesting now in the Eucalypts on the hanks of the 

 I-Jale Kiver and other large water courses." jNIr. C. 1^. Cowle also wrote under same date that 

 this Parrakeet was breedini; on the Hugh I^iver. 



'• Whilst most species of Parrakeets resort to the same districts to byeed year after year, 

 Spiit/iiipli'i iif. dliwiindr.r usually makes its appearance in some locality where it has never 

 been seen before. Immediately the young ones are able to fly they assemble in flocks, and 

 suddenly take their departure. In November, 1894, they came in great numbers to several 

 places in the \icinity of Alice Springs, Central Australia, much to the surprise of residents who 

 had been in the locality for thirty years without seeing them. They lelt again as soon as the 

 young ones were reared, and only stray birds have been seen there since. In August, iSy6, while 

 with the Calvert Exploring Expedition, these Parrakeets were seen and specimens obtained in 

 the Cireat Sandy Desert, North-western Australia, about three hundred miles north-east of Lake 

 Way; others were also olitained as we went northwards towards Separation \\'ell, but they 

 were left with the abandoned collection at Joanna Spring. Subseijuently in March, 1S97, I shot 

 two out of floclc, when about fifty miles north of Joanna Spring. In May, i^Syj, Mr. L. A. 

 Wells, our leader, saw them within fifty miles ot the Fitzroy Kiver, West Kimberley. During 

 1902 they appeared in flocks and bred near Menzies, W'estern Australia, and again disappeareil 

 a few weeks later. This species usually breeds about the time the Spinifex seed is ripening, 

 and in the \icinity of water ; as many as ten nests ha\e been found in one tree. Whenever 

 I saw them in either Central or North-western Australia, it was invariably amongst the Spinifex, 

 the seed, which is like very small Canary seed, they are extremely fond of. They thrive well 

 in captivity, but when they are breeding in an aviary it is necessary to remove the male as soon as 

 the young are a few days old, or he will cause his mate to neglect lier parental duty, and allow 

 the brood to starve. Voung birds are easily tamed, and will walk on the hand or arm of the 

 person in the habit of feeding them. Under date 29th May, 1905, Mr. Keartland wrote me 

 again as follows: — ' I had a letter from Mr. L. A. Wells the other day, in which he informed 

 me that whilst out on his last trip he saw Spatltoptcnis akxandi\i breeding on the Alberga Kiver, 

 about eighty miles north-west from Oodnadatta, and also saw them in the IMusgrave Ranges. 

 They were, therefore, in South Australia proper, as the southern boundary line of the Northern 

 Territory is only tour miles south of Charlotte Waters." 



Mr. A. Zietz, then Assistant Director of the South Australian Museum, wrote me as follows 

 under date iSth January, 1899: — " I think- I ought to inform you of my success with Spathoptcnts 



