154 I'LATYCEKCIN.'E. 



BoLuke, and tidin where I have seen living examples in Sydney. The late Mr. K. H. Bennett 

 procured specimens and found its nesting-place and eggs in the Moolah District, and Dr. W. 

 Macgillivray has observed it sixty-miles north of Broken Hill. It has been obtained in different 

 parts of South Australia, and one of a pair of live birds purchased in Adelaide by Mr. W. S. 

 Clark, said to have been obtained one hundred miles north of Port Augusta, lived in 

 conlinement for about ten years. M. Octa\e le Bon informed me he netted eight living 

 examples at a soak near Melville, on the Murchison Gold Field, Western Australia, •' and Mr. 

 C. G. Gibson sent me a specimen for identification procured by him at W'iluna, in the East 

 Murchison District. 



In 1849 Captain Sturt pointed out the nocturnal habits of this species in his " Expedition 

 to Central Australia,'' where he writes : — " Hiipliaita beiii'kii was a visitant at the Depot [North- 

 western New South W'ales; and remained throughout the winter, keeping in the day time in 

 the barren brushes behind the camp, and coming only to water. The approach of this little 

 bird was intimated by a sharp cutting noise in passing rapidly through the air, when it was so 

 dark that no object could be seen distinctly, and they frequently struck against the tent cords 

 in consequence." 



Mr. Robert Grant, Taxidermist of the Australian Museum, has handed me the following 

 note : — " I have only once met with Bourke's Grass-Parrakeet, and this was in November, 

 1892, about a mile below tlie wool wash at Bourke, on the Darling River. A pair were feeding 

 on the ground, and I fired and shot both of them, and secured the male, but the female fell down 

 the steep bank of the river, and I lost it amongst some roots and driftwood left by the floods." 



Mr. Percy Pair wrote me from Marrickville, Sydney, under date 5th October, 1909:—" In 

 1904 1 had fi\'e pairs of Bourke's Grass Parrakeet (Ncophcnia houvkci) sent me from Adelaide, 

 having come from the central district of South Australia. They are very timid and of a 

 gentle nature, the call note and cry of alarm resembling that of the " Budgerigar " or Warbling 

 Grass Parrakeet. They thrive well under ordinary conditions in captivity, canary seed being 

 the main food. Whilst in the aviary they made no attempt at breeding, being at one period 

 molested a good deal by suburban cats. A pair sent to Crystal Palace Exhibition, London, 

 was awarded first prize, similar successes being met with at Sydney shows. Since the abo\e 

 period I have not been successful in securing any more of these Parrakeets, for, like other 

 rarities, they are only to be met with occasionally." Mr. Peir presented a specimen to the 

 Trustees of the Australian Museum, and wrote as follows : — " Enclosed is a specimen of Bourke's 

 Grass Parrakeet. It originally came from South Australia ;'/(7 Adelaide, but I do not know the 

 exact locality. 1 have had it in captivity about two years. When first received its plumage 

 was mottled with yellow, which subsequently disappeared when it attained adult plumage." 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett wrote: — " Enphcma Jo»)'A'« frequents the timbered back country 

 of the south-western portions of New South Wales, and although widely distributed there it is 

 by no means plentiful. It is usually met with in pairs or in small flocks of five or six in number, 

 probably the adults accompanied by their young, and passes most of its time on the ground 

 searching for the seeds of various grasses and herbaceous plants, which constitute its sole food. 

 It resorts to water daily for the purpose of drinking. The breeding season is August to October, 

 and the eggs, four in number, are deposited in the hollow trunk of a small Eucalyptus or Casuariiia 

 (Belar) more fre(iuently the latter." 



Dr. W. Macgillivray writes me as follows from Broken Hill, in South-western New South 

 Wales: — " Ncophcma bonrkci is nowhere plentiful in the district. It is not found nearer than 

 about sixty miles north from here, on Langawirra Station ; its distribution is patchy, and it does 

 not seem to wander fat from the localities which favor its habits of living. It usually frequents 



* North, Rec. Austr. Mus., Vol. V., p. 26S (1904). 



