112 PSITTACID.*. 



as are those from Cairns. Many, however, of the specimens from tiie latter locality were 

 procured just before the moult, and have that oranp;e shade to the feathers, which is also seen 

 in specimens obtained in Southern Australia. 



Abnormal plumage is not uncommon. There is in the Australian Museum Mounted 

 Collection a tendency to .vanthochrism exhibited in an adult female procured in the Clarence 

 Iviver District. It is entirely yellowish-t;reen, with the exception of the lower breast, abdomen 

 ;md the broad margins to the tip of the under tail-coverts, these parts being scarlet. There is 

 another skin of an adult female in the Reference Collection, which has the hind neck, upper 

 portion of the back and the chest mottled with yellow feathers, and one or two greenish-yellow 

 feathers on the rump. An adult male has the feathers on the head, hind neck, throat and breast 

 of a pronounced orange-yellow shade, while another adult male has a few yellow feathers 

 intermingled with the scarlet feathers on the nape. In the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, I 

 saw the specimen which Gould described as Apivsiiiiiiiis iiisi\L;iiissiiiiiii.' I regard it as a hybrid, 

 Aprosmidiis tvaih'pyiiiiis + Ptistcs ciythroptcnn ; another specimen has the upper part of the rump 

 red. 



From Copmanhurst, on the Ijpper Clarence River, Mr. George Sa\idge wTOte me: — "The 

 first set oi Apronniitui cyanopvi;iifi eggs, three in number, I found on the Sth November, iScyj. in 

 tlie bole of a large gum tree which stands close to a scrub near Cangai Stockyard, about forty 

 miles fron-j Copmanhurst. The blackfellow ' Cobby' saw the bird fly into the hole, and after 

 waiting about fifteen minutes to see if it would Hy out, we went to the tree to tap it out. After 

 a minute or two we heard it climbing up inside the tree close to the ground, and it took it several 

 minutes before it got to the top. We then chopped a hole six or seven feet from the ground, 

 where we first heard it, and discovered the eggs, which were very slightly incubated. Thinking 

 the full set of eggs were not laid Mr. Woods, my companion, shot the bird, but there were no 

 other eggs ready for laying. From where the bird went in to the place the eggs were laid, was 

 thirty-five to forty feet, and it seems a mystery how they take their young out. .'\ friend of 

 mine in December, 1901, caught a young one on the ground not able to Hy. Do the old ones 

 carry them up on their backs ? the second nesting site was found on the 6th Decenrber, 1901, 

 by one of my black collectors, named ' Jacky,' and this hollow tree contained two sets of eggs, 

 four in each. (_)ne of the sets was just chipping out, and the other about a week incubated. 

 The eggs were placed about two feet apart at the bottom of a hole in the bole of a large Gum 

 tree. It seems remarkable that two pairs of birds should inhabit the one tree, but other Blacks, 

 quite distinct from ' Jacky,' have told me they have found them before with many young ones, 

 opening out both hands, e\idently places where more than one pair of birds laid." 



Writing under date i6th April, 1907, Mr. Savidge remarks ; — " Last year I found a nest of 

 the King Lory, and after watching for some time, felt sure that it had eggs, but after all we 

 chopped it out before the bird had laid. This is the fourth time that I have done so." 



From Belltrees, Scone, New South Wales, Mr. 11. L. White wrote me: — "The King 

 Parrot {Apvosmictns cyanopynins) is occasionally seen in this district. .A nesting-place was found 

 some few years ago by a boundary rider, who, instead of taking the eggs for me, decided to wait 

 for the young ones, which were obtained after a great deal of trouble, the nesting hollow being 

 followed down (by chopping) for some twenty-five feet before the birds were reached. Of the 

 three birds thus obtained, one turned out a great talker and is a splendid looking fellow, taking 

 just about three years to obtain his full plumage." 



Mr. Robert Grant, Taxidermist of the .\ustralian Museum, has given me the following 

 notes : — " I first shot King Parrots while they were feeding in Lilly-pillytrees in the deep gorges 

 at Mount W'ilson, on the Blue Mountains, and later on at Wolgan. On the Bellenger River I 



t Proc. Zooi. Soc, 1875, p. 314. 



