PLATYIKHCUS. 127 



and no one seems to bother about trapping them, as there is more profit and less handling in 

 trading in Finches. The fabulous prices asked for them in the Sydney shops, where they appear 

 occasionally, precludes any ordinary individual from indulging in such a luxury. .As much as 

 £3 Kis. per pair has been asked, whereas I never paid more than los. from residents in Port 

 Darwin." 



Two eggs in Mr. G. A. Heartland's collection, taken from the hollow limb of a tree near 

 the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South .Australia, on the 5th .August, 1903, and 

 accompanied with a skin of the parent bird, are rounded-oval in form, the shell being close- 

 grained, white and lustreless, and much stained with the decaying wood on which they 

 were laid. I'hey measure : — Length (A)i-oi x o'S4 inches ; (B) i"05 x o'.S6 inches. There 

 were only two eggs in the nesting-place, but piobably fue or six eggs would be the full 

 complement. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but are duller in colour and have the straw-yellow margins 

 of the scapulars and feathers of the upper back palei and broader, head and nape brownish- 

 black", some of the feathers centred with dull red and yellow ; cheeks entirely dull blue; foreneck 

 brownish-black; remainder of the under surface a uniform very pale straw-yellow, some of the 

 feathers on the centre of the lower abdomen and the under tail-coverts dull scarlet. Wing 5'5 

 inches. A specimen showing a further progress towards maturity, has most of the feathers of 

 the under surface a richer straw-yellow, fringed with black, and some of those of the foreneck 

 and breast centred with dull red. An otherwise fully adult male has a few red feathers on one 

 side only of the forehead. 



Platycercus eximius, 



ROSE-IJILL PARRAKEET. 



I'tiitti'cns eximius, Shaw, Nat., Aliscl., pi. 9:'. (1702). 



riafycfn-ii.-< i'x'imiHs,(io\x\A, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. V., pi. 27 (1S4S); id., Haiulbk. Bds. Austr,, 

 Vol. II., p. 55 (1805); Salvad., Cat. Bd.s. Brit. Mus., Vol. XX., p 551 (1891); Sharpe, 

 Haii(l-I. Bds., Vol. II., p. ;38M900) ; Salvad., Ibis, 1907, p -•512. 



-AuiLr M.\LB. — I/'iii/,si'/,i(i/l/i,' ni'i-k itiiil ii/:/ier hrrasl scarlet, nape yellov ; scapulars aiid 

 fea/hfis III' /lie back black luarg i mil ivith yrcniisli-yelhur ; riiuip ami upper tail-coverts yelloivisJi- 

 yreen. : ijnills dark bias i>n. their uater irebs, blackish <iii their inner ivebs, the outer secondaries 

 marijineil externally n:itli liijht bine, the m ner series also of the yrealer winy-corerts tnaryiued e.cternalhj 

 n'ith yelloivislt-yreen ; jiriniary coverts dark blue, the lesser and no dian and the outer series of the 

 (jreater wing-coverts violet-blue, with a bletck patch oit the inner lesser and median coverts: tail- 

 feathers blue, the four central feathers n:ashed icith yreen, bat mure stronyly on the central j'air ; the 

 remainder dark bine at their bases, light blue oil their apicid portions and tipped irith lohite ; cheeks 

 ii'hite : liDver breast yelloa^ with very narrmv dusky edgings to the feathers : abdomen i/ellon-ish-green : 

 under tail-coverts scarlet ; hill pale hlnish horn coimir : legs and feel dark grey : iris dark brown. 

 Total Irnylh in the jlesh l-i'd inches, wing I'r-:, tail 11:5, bill O'i', tarsus 0-75. 



Adult fem.^lk. — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — New South Wales, A'ictoria, South Australia, Tasmania ? 



AI^HE Rose-hill Parrakeet, or "Rosella," as it is more frequently called, is freely distributed 



-L throughout the south-eastern portion of the Australian continent and most parts of 



Tasmania. It frequents alike the brushes of the coast as well as the mountain ranges and open 



forest lands, passing much of its time on the ground in searcii of seeds of various grasses, which 



