110 PsITTACIl).*:. 



old birds did not come near their young, and as I had nothing but damper and sugar to feed 

 them on they only lived two days. In New South Wales these birds are fairly distributed 

 on the Macquarie, Bogan and Castlereagh Rivers, but they are never found far from water." 



Mr. G. A. Heartland, of Melbourne, wrote me as follows: — " .Mthough Ptistcs cyythroptcfiis 

 will thrive on grain or Canary seed in captivity, those I saw in a state of nature on the Fitzroy 

 River, North-western Australia, seemed to live entirely on the small black nati\e tigs, which 

 were very plentiful near the river. I never saw them over a mile from water, and they usually 

 breed in the trees on the river banks. .-Mthough the female may be seen to enter a hole in a 

 branch many feet from the ground, she follows the hollow down to its base, and the eggs are 

 laid on the rubbish at the bottom, often within a few feet of the root. Like most Parrakeets the 

 female does all the sitting. I had a pair of young ones sent to me by Mrs. Chas. Clarke, of Mary 

 \'ale, Queensland, and before they were two years old they showed indications of breeding, but 

 refused to use the hollow log provided for them. The hen laid one egg on the floor of the 

 aviary, which I placed on some sawdust in a small box, with two low sides. She then laid 

 three more in the box, and sat on them for ten days, when a mischievous boy scared her off the 

 nest so many times that she broke two eggs and deserted the others. I am in hopes of better 

 luck next time. Some Ornithologists incline to the opinion that there are two species of this 

 genus, but I have had many skins through my hands from both North-western and North-eastern 

 Australia, and failed to disco\er any specific difference." 



The nesting-place is usually in the hollow trunk of a tree, and the eggs four to six in number 

 laid on the debris at the bottom, and sometimes as far as thirty feet down, as Mr. Barnard has 

 pointed out, from the entrance. The eggs are rounded-oval in form, white, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and lustreless. A set of four taken by 'Six. H. G. Barnard at Coomooboo- 

 laroo, Duaringa, (Queensland, on the 25th September, 1892, measures: — Length (A) 1-18 x i 

 inches: (B) 1-2 x i inches; (C) 1-23 x i inches; (D) 1-2 x 0-99 inches. In the same locality 

 Mr. H. Ci. Barnard took a set of three on the 2nd October, 1892. Two eggs taken from a hollow- 

 trunk of a tree near the Fitzroy River, North-western Australia, on the 17th March, 1897, 

 during the stay there of the Calvert Exploring Expedition, measure alike i-iS x 0-97 inches. 



Immature males have the basal portion of the feathers of the interscapular region green, 

 and some of the scapulars green with blackish tips ; the outer median and the entire greater- 

 coverts crimson-red, the lesser and the inner median coverts yellowish-green mottled or edged 

 at the tip with crimson-red. Wing 7-6 inches. 



The breeding season in Queensland and Northern New South Wales is September and the 

 three following months. In North-western Australia fresh eggs were obtained by the Calvert 

 Exploring Expedition in .March. 



Aprosmictus cyanopygius. 



KING LORY. 

 Psittaais cyanajiyyius, Vieill., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist., torn. XXV., p. 339 (1817). 

 Aprosmictus sccipiilalns, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. V., pi. 17 (184S) ; i<f., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 



Vol. JL, p. 35 (1865). 

 Aprosiniciiis cyanopijgius, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XX., p. 48G (1891) ; Sharpe, Hand-1. 

 Bds., Vol. II., p. 3:! (I'JOO) ; Salvad-, Ibis 19n7, p. 142. 

 Adult male. — Gi-niral colour above gmii ; wiitys yrecii, tlie inner series of the upper iving- 

 coverls pale venliyris-green ; lower back and rump deep blue ; upper /ail-coverts black washed with 



