NKOPHKMA. Kjl 



Peninsula, in May, 1886. In one of the specimens the upper aspect of the tail-feathers is much 

 bluerthanin the other two. (.)n the 9th September, 1887, I saw one on a rou^h, stony, uncultivated 

 patch on top of Green Hills, Circular Mead, and in June, iSSX, I saw a Hock about the same 

 place." 



From Glenorchy, near Hohart, Tasmania, Mr. Malcolm Harrison writes me:— "The Orange- 

 bellied Grass-Parrakeet arrives about the same time as the Blue-banded Grass-Parrakeet, but 

 in my experience not in the same numbers, and the same class of country is apparently conu;enial 

 to both, although each species seems to prefer its own particular area in which to carry 011 

 nesting operations. Messrs. A. C. Butler, A. W. Swindells and I noticed this in the Bothwell 

 District, and Mr. lirent found the same thing occurring at Melton in iS.jy, when l.oth species 

 were so plentiful. For several years past very few of these birds have visited their usual haunts, 

 nor can I hear of them as freriuenting other parts. Mr. Brent and I, durin.i,' the latter part of 

 1908, devoted a week entirely in pursuit of the Parrakeets { Ktipliana vcnmta and E. clirvsnsastra) 

 and succeeded in finding one solitary bird of the latter species in a tree on the Dennistown 

 Estate at Bothwell. I have had several sets of the eggs, in each case consisting of four, and I 

 am inclined to think that number, and occasionally five is the complement." 



It usually breeds in a hole in a tree limb, and sometimes in a stump or log lyini; on the 

 t;round. The eggs are four or li\e in number for a sitting, almost globular in form, pure white, 

 except where nest-stained, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustreless. .\ set of four in 

 Mr. Malcolm Harrison's collection, taken at Bothwell, Tasmania, by Mr. A. W. Swindells, on 

 the 6th November, 189S, measures: — Length (A) o-88 x 0-67 inches; (B) 0-82 x 07 inches; 

 (C) 0-83 X 0-68 inches; (D) o-8i x o-68 inches. Another set of four in the same collection, 

 taken by Mr. A. E. Brent, at Woodlands, Melton Mowbray, Tasmania, on the 15th December, 

 1899, measures: — Len'^th (A) o-88 x 073 inches; (I!)o-g x 073 inches ; (Cjo-g x 075 inches; 

 (D)o-88 X 076 inches. 



Like Niopliema vtinistii it is a late breeder, November and the two following months constituting 

 the usual breeding season. 



Neophema petrophila. 



ROCK-PARRAKEET. 



Euphi'iaa petrophila, Gould, Proc. /ool. Soc, 1840, p. 148; vL, lids. Austr., fol. Vol. V., pi. 40 

 (1848); (■</., Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 7G (1865). 



Xeiiphema jie/rop/iila, Salvad., Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XX., p 574 (1891); Sharpe, Handl. 

 Bds., Vol. II., p. :39(1900). 



Adult MALK. — General cohmr aliove dull olire-grern, iipprr iviiiy-Cdrrrls und inner secondaries 

 like the hack, the extreme outer wing-cocerts blue, the greater serifs irith dnJl olipe-green tips, the outer 

 loehs of the outer secondaries olive-green, bluish at the base ; inner n-fhs of ijuills broivnish-black, the 

 priinari/ corerts and outer irebs if primaries dark bine, the latter marginal iritlt greeuish-b/ue, ivhich 

 decreases in extent toiranis the inner primaries, all but t/ie outer n-ehs rerij narrou-ljj edged untJi piale 

 broiun around their tips : central pair of tail-feathers green, slightly n-ashed externalb/ ?cith olive, and 

 ■shaded irillt blue near tin ir shafts, the rennnnder greyish-bine ^vaslied with green on their outer webs 

 their inner ivebs brown.ish-black and tip/ied ivitli yellow, these yellow tips increasing in extent towards 

 the outermost feather on either side, which is entirely yellow, except at tlw base ; band em the forehead 

 deep richblue, bordered before and behind n-itli verdilerblur, whicli e.iti'nds in. a narrmv ring around 

 the eyi\ the lores a slightly deeper blue: throol and upper breast and flanks olive-green, shaded with 



41 



