IIG PI.ATVCERCIN,*;. 



W'liile resident at Hamilton, in tlie Western District of \'ictoria, 1 'r. W. Mact;illi\ray sent 

 me the following; notes : — " I'laiycerciis (Icgdus developed a taste for tlie berries of tfie Box Thorn, 

 and comes into the town to feed upon them when they are ripe in the autumn. The immature 

 birds of this species keep very much to themsel\'es, beinj^ seldom seen in company with birds in 

 full adult plumage, possibly because the latter Unowing their brifjht colours expose them to 

 danf,'er are more wary, or that the young birds, trani]uil in the assurance of youth and the 

 protection that a dark green suit affords, are inclined to be more venturesome.'" 



Lilce all the members of the genus, Pennant's Parrakeet resorts to a hollow limb or spout 

 of a tree for the purposes of breeding, depositing from hve to eight eggs on the decaying wood 

 or dust found in these cavities. The nesting-place may be within a few feet of the ground, or 

 so high up in a tall [uu-alvpti as to be inaccessible. 



The eggs are rounded oval in form, white, but usually more or less nest-stained, the shell 

 being close-.^rained, smooth and slii^htly lustrous. A set of six eggs received from Mr. J. Gabriel, 

 and taken by Mr. T. A. Prittlebank at Myrniong, \'ictona, on the 4th November, 1S96, measures 

 as follows: — Length (A) 1-12 x 0-96 inches : (B) 1-14 x 0-96 inches; (C) rij x 0-97 inches; 

 (D) fi7 X o'95 inches; (E) nj x 0-97 inches; (F)i-i7 x 0-96 inches. 



Voung birds are dull olive-green above and below ; tail feathers resemble those of the 

 adult, but are more distinctly washed with olive-green; the inner wing-coverts olive-green hke 

 the back, the outer series dull blue, the median and greater coverts margined externally with 

 dull olive-green, the crimson-red feathers first appearing on the forehead and crown of the head, 

 fore-neck and under tail-coverts. Wing 6-8 inches. From this stage onwards examples may 

 be found in every stage of parti-coloured plumage, usually the last trace of immaturity exhibiting 

 itself in the greenish shade to the sub-margins of the inner (]uills. 



The breeding season usually conmiences in Eastern Australia in October and continues 

 until the end of January, or middle of February. Young birds recently taken from nesting- 

 places may occasionally be seen exposed for sale in cages or baskets in the streets of Sydney, or 

 in the bird-dealers shops, about the end of December. At this stage of their existence they are 

 only about half feathered, and are of a uniform dull olive-green plumage. They are easy to 

 rear, live well in confinement, and when adult learn to whistle and tallc very well. 



With a series of over seventy skins before me from all parts ot its range, there appear to 

 be two well defined geographical variations or races of the preceding species. 



Specimens from Bellenden Ker Range, North-eastern Queensland, belong to a smaller and 

 darker plumaged form of Platyccrcus clegans, which Dr. E. P. Ramsay described under the 

 name of I'latyccrcns paiiuvitii, var. lUi^i'cscens.'-' Several specimens collected by Mr. Ivobert 

 Grant in open forest lands, near Lake Eicham, are in the normal plumage of this smaller and 

 darker coloured race, but others he procured in dense brush at Boar Pocket, only four miles 

 away, exhibit traces more or less of melanism, from a few scattered black feathers along the dark 

 crimson-red ones to others having most of the feathers on the head, cheeks, back and some 

 on the breast, black. It is from the darkest of these melanistic forms that Dr. Ramsay's 

 description of the type of var. ni£;v(sccus was taken. One of the wings and the tail feathers of the 

 type are much abraded. Total length 12 inches, wing 6-2, tail (rg. Wing measurement of a 

 normal plumaged mounted specimen b'\ inches. 



It is somewhat remarkable that this northern form should more closely resemble the bird 

 inhabiting Kangaroo Island, close to the South Australian coast. The latter form difiers not 



• Tab. List Austr. Bds., p. 34 (iSSS). 



