16"2 I'LATYCERCIN-t:. 



yelloir, becomhtg brhjlitfr on t/ifi Imn'r jiarts nf the body ; remain(hr uf iiud'r snrfacr miil under 

 liiU-coverti yellow : bill dork hi nish-liorii colour: by^ und feel yreyin/id/roiru ; iris dark broimt. 

 Total length in the flegli S'l inches, n-iny J/.'-!, tnil Jf'o, bill 0-5, tiirsna 0:'t5. 



Adult female. — ^liy/itly dnlhr in pi nntaye than tin: mole, and ivithont the oraaye spot on the 

 abdomen. 



Disirdiniion. — South Australia, \\'estern Australia. 



^^ME Rock Parrakeet is one of the most uniformly coi(3ured species of the fjenus. (iilbert 

 found it breedin;; " in the iioles of the most precipitous cliffs " on Ivottnest and other 

 islands near Swan River, in Western Australia, and Count Salvador!, in the " Catalogue of 

 Birds in the British Museum,"' enumerates specimens collected as far north as Freycinet's 

 Harbour, Shark Bay, Western Australia, during the \'oyage of H.M.S. " Herald." In the 

 collection of the Australian Museum are specimens procured by Mr. George Masters, at Port 

 Lincoln, South Australia, in September, 1865, and an adult male and female received in exchange 

 from the Trustees of the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, procured by the then Assistant 

 Director, Mr. .-\. Zietz, on Mare Island, one of the Sir Joseph Bank's Group in Spencer's Gulf, 

 in September, 1890. Mr. Zietz was also successful in obtaining daring the trip other specimens, 

 on Spilsby Island, in the same group, where he found this species breeding in holes and ca\ities 

 under the rocks. There is also an adult male and female in the collection received from the 

 Trustees of the Western Australian Museum, Perth, procured by Mr. C. P. Conigrave on the 12th 

 August, 1905, at Rottnest Island. Mr. Bernard Woodward, the Curator, has also sent on loan for 

 examination a fine series of sixteen adult skins of both sexes, obtained from different localities 

 in Western Australia, but chiefly from Rottnest Island. They were mostly collected by Mr. ]. 

 T. Tunney, the Museum collector, who has appended brief notes on some of the labels. A male 

 and female from Moudrain Island, obtained on the 30th April, 1906, bear a note — "Not numerous, 

 only saw four since I have been on island :" of two females procured at Esperance I!ay in 

 April, 1906, " not numerous, shot on the sea-shore ;'' and of a male shot on Sandy Hook Island 

 on the i6th November, 1904, "scarce in this part, have only seen two;" and another procured 

 at Point Malcolm on the 17th June, 1906, "mostly seen along the sea-shore." 



In a series of twenty adult specimens now before me only one, a male procured by Mr. .\. 

 Zeitz, on an island oft^ the South Australian coast, has an indication of an orange spot on the 

 centre of the abdomen. 



From the Reed-beds, near Adelaide, Mr. W. White wrote me as follows under date 7th 

 May, 1893 : — " Although I have never taken the eggs of Enphcma pctrophila on Kangaroo Island, 

 I have seen these birds going into holes in the inaccessible cliffs of the Althorpe Islands, lying 

 off Cape Spencer, in Investigator Strait. I am going to Kangaroo Island next August, and will 

 keep a look out for this species." 



Mr. A. Zietz wrote me: — " I ha\e observed Eupluma pctivpliila at Aldinga Bay on top of the 

 rocks near the sea-shore, and I am also informed it frequently occurs on Yorke's Peninsula. 

 I saw six of these birds alive, in a bird-dealer's shop in Adelaide. As you know, I have obtained 

 both birds and eggs on the islands of the Sir Joseph Bank's Group." 



Mr. Tom Carter writes me from Broome Hill, South-western Australia; — " Ncophcma 

 petrophila is common about .Albany, not only where the coast is rocky, but they were also 

 frequently observed feeding about salt maishes, and also in scrub some little distance from the 

 beach. When staying at the Margaret River, in 1903, I was informed they used to be common 

 along the bold coast line there, and bred underneath the large slabs of rock piled up above high- 

 water mark, but they never came under my notice." 



• Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XX., p 575 (1S91). 



