SPATHoI'TEKUS. 107 



cilixcvidnc, as it is the first instance of tiiis spiecies breeding in confinement, the only young one, 

 which is now fully feathered, and wiiicii resembles the female, left the nesting-box yesterday. 

 My birds successfully hatched eggs, and there were young ones last season, but unfortunately 

 they died before they were feathered. This year, also, one of the young ones died when about a 

 fortnight old. The female laid live eggs for a sitting, one was soft-shelled, two had young birds 

 dead in them, and two were hatched. The adults are three years old, and are moulting now, 

 and show a marked difference in colour. The male bird is very bright, but the hen is more of 

 a dusky tinge." 



Mr. Chas. FTench, Junr., Assistant Ciovernment lintomologist of \ictoria, wrote me under 

 date 6th January, 1903 :— " My female Spatlh'pU'nis dlc\am{r„- has laid a set of four eggs lately. 

 This bird was given to me by Professor Baldwin Spencer, of the University of Melbourne, about 

 eight years ago, and these are the first eggs she has laid." Writing me subsetiuently Mr. French 

 remarks : — " I am pcjsting you four eggs of Spdllnfta-iis alcxaiidnc. They were laid on the Sth, 

 13th and 24th August and the 5th September, 1904. This makes eighteen eggs my bird has 

 laid altogether ; generally they get cracked. I put sawdust, rags, and grass in the cage, but 

 she always shifts it away and lays the eggs on the tin bottom of the cage. A person in Melbourne 

 has received a lovely pair of these birds, the male is a gem ; they were taken from a nesting- 

 place near Coolgardie, Western Australia." 



Mr. Percy I'eir writes me from Marrickville, near Sydney :— " I have had altogether four 

 or fi\e Alexandra or Princess of Wales Parrakeets ( Spatluipta'in ahwaiidriv), but singularly 

 enough all have been females. A female I ha\e had in captivity now for about four years is as 

 bright in plumage as any male bird. 1 endeavoured to mate it with a Polytclis harvahaiidi but 

 although they made a good deal of lo\e to one another, and the female laid several clutches of 

 eggs, there was no result as the eggs were broken soon after being laid. To attract the Green 

 Leek she would spread her tail with her bill, displaying the pink inner web of the feathers, 

 and he would in turn stand before her, and show off his scarlet band on the chest. I received a 

 female from Mr. Clarkson, of Adelaide, who liad it for six or seven years, and he informed me 

 that it laid thirty or forty eggs every year. Those 1 ha\'e never made the slightest attempt 

 at talking, but would keep up a rather distracting call throughout the day." 



Tho eggs are four or five in number for a sitting, and vary from an ellipse to a rounded- 

 o\al in form, pure white, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous. Three eggs of a 

 set of five, taken by Mr. Chas. Pritchard from a hollow in a tree near the Hale River, in Central 

 Australia, in Xovember, 1894, measure: — Length (.\) 1-05 x o-y inches; (B) 1-07 x 0-91 inches; 

 (C) i-oi X o'Sj inches. A set of five measures: — Length (A) i-i x 0-9 inches; (B) 1-12 

 X 0-92 inches; (C) rog x 0-9 inches; (D) 1-07 x 0-92 inches; (E) I'li x 0-93 inches. Four 

 odd eggs laid by a bird in confinement at Mr. C. French, Junr. 's, Camberwell, X'ictoria, in August 

 and September, 1904, measure : — Length (.A) 1-12 x 0-87 inches; (IJ) i-i x 0-9 inches; (C) 

 fi X o'S^ inches; (D) f22 x 0-83 inches. 



Young males resemble the adult females, and are destitute of spatules. 



No\ember and the two following months constitute the usual breeding season in Central 

 .Vustralia. 



