NEOPHKMA. i£.c 



Ibo 



^ve ^ <lark bin.,, ..■a,.calporU.n.r,, ..,.,.,■ .ruaaries aarro,o, y ,1^ ,„Uh Uy,u yre.n, tke out.r 

 >neis of the ouMr ^con.l.ri,-s .oa.k..l ,oUk ,r..:. .- ..,Ural ,air of tail feathers yreen. n,Uh a sUylu Mui.k 

 M n.arke.. base, tke n.rt o. .itker siUe ,,..„ .. tk. out.- ,ael>, Ua.k on tke Inner, tk. Lain,ler 



fatke,^ oneMersule, .oinch .s enUrrly ,„7/„,„, .,,,,,,, ,,„ ,,,,.. ^„,„,„^^^ ^^^^^ ,.^^^^^.^. ^^^^^ 



l^ro,nu.,pa,rr.ntkesul.softk. I.ea,l, .ar-.,r.ns an,i .ul.s ,f u,,,.r n.ck ; cke.t an^ u,,^ br^alt 



Z^Zl ^ ' '""^^--'-'^ '^"^Z' *'""■ ^'"-' ''■'K,>k 8 u.k.s, ,ou>., 4-4, 'ail .',-,, bill 



A0..rr......-y.r ,. ,U,n,.,r fka. tk. .n..U, ,rUk a le.s.s e.teaC of bin. „n tk. fa.; anrl 



th. cnlr.. oj Ih, ch.st and npper brmst ,,„ scarh;, bn, .uniform gr.en like the sicks. 



Dislribntion.^We^tern Australia, South Australia, New South Wales. 

 ^^(JULD descr.bed the present species m the '^ Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 

 >^ London, ,n iS+o.^- the type of which was obtained in Western AustraUa, and later on 

 wrote m h,s foho ed.fon of the " Birds of Australia" h-" It is a source of much regret to me that 

 am unable to guen,ore than a very slight not.ce of the beautiful bird that forms the subject of 

 the present Plate. The smgle specimen from wh.ch my description was taken came into my 

 possession m 1S40, unfortunately without any other information accompanymg u than tnat il 

 was a native of Swan River; from that period no other example occurred until 1845, when 

 several line specimens were transmitted to me by the late Mr. Johnson Drummond, who had 

 killed them near Moore's River, in Western Australia, and from whom I should doubtless have 

 received some particulars respecting the habits of this lovely species had he not been treacherously 

 murdered by a native in his company, while engaged in seeking for materials for this and mv 

 other works on the Fauna of Australia." As in Gould's time, so it is now, undoubtedly the 

 rarest species of the genus M..phn,u,. The Splendid, or Scarlet-chested Grass-Parrakeet is very 

 sparingly distributed in Western New South Wales, the inland districts of South Australia and 

 according to Gould the South-western portion of Western Australia. The specimens in the 

 Australian Museum Collection are from the Darling River, New South Wales, the Gawler Ranges 

 and other parts of South Australia. " 



In reply to an inquiry, Mr. Bernard H. Woodward, Director of the Western Australian 

 Museum, I erth, writing in September, 1909, remarks:-'- I regret to state that as yet I 

 have been unable to obtain specimens of Ncophnna splcndnla. I have never heard of its 

 having been found in the neighbourhood of Perth, although in the works on the Ornitholo^^y of 

 Australia it is said to occur in our South-western District. It must be very rare, as neither our 

 Collector nor any of our contributors have been able to get specimens." 



Mr Chas G. Gibson, late Assistant Government Geologist of Western Australia, who has 

 travelled largely over that State in the prosecution of his official duties, writes:-" As to .V,-.A/,,,„,z 

 spinuhda, I have never seen it, so you can safely say it is not found in the Central and Western 

 portions of the State ; unfortunately I do not know much about the birds in the coastal districts." 



Mr. Tom Carter writes from Broome Hill, South-western Australia:-" I have never seen 

 Ncophcma iplcudida in any part of Western Australia." 



Mr. Robert Grant, Ta.xidermist of the Australian Museum, has given me the following 

 note :-" In November, 1892, I flushed a beautiful male Ncophcma spicndida out of some Poly.onnw 

 near Bourke, on the Darling River, Western New South Wales, and it flew into a low tree' 

 This bird I shot, and afterwards carefully searched all around for the female, but did not find it 

 This is the only instance I have ever seen this species alive in the bush." 



42 



* Proc. Zooi. Soc, 1S40, p, 147^ t Bds. Austr , fol, Vol.T7te^a^^.p^ri)l7^,7(Ts48|7 



