i(;9 



absent again for many years. duuld met with it breeding at Hreeza in large numbers in 

 December, and states that formerly it was \ery numerous on the Lower Xamoi River, but during 

 my visits to those districts 1 never observed it anywhere in that part of the State. It was 

 common on the Castlereagh River, about three hundred and eighty miles west of Sydney, in 

 October, 1905, frequenting and breeding chiefly in ring-barked paddocks, with a profusion of 

 herbaceous plants and tall grasses, in close proximity to surface water and a dam, where they 



frequently used to drink. In connnon with many other species 

 found near the coast in other parts of .\ustialia, the Warbling 

 (irass-Parrak-eet is not found near the seaboard of New South 

 Wales. 



The crops and stomachs of specimens examined contained the 

 seeds, or remains of them, of various grasses and iierhaceous 



plants. 



It possesses a series of sweet and clear warbling notes. In 

 confinement it is amusing to watch a pair of these birds perched 

 near one another, with lieads turned and facing each other. 

 The clieek feathers of the male stand out from the rest of tlie 

 head, as he volubly pours forth in bird language his affection 

 for his consort, she apparently intently listening, and occasion- 

 ally uttering a chirruping note. There was a great scarcity of 

 this species in the Sydney bird-dealers' shops for several years, 

 but from 1904, since the break of the great drought in New 

 South Wales, tliey are as numerous as ever. It is impossible 

 to form any approximate estimate of the large number of this 

 species e.xported annually to Europe and America, but it must 

 run into many thousands of dozens. The mortality amongst 

 them is great, for they are placed in cages witli just sufficient 

 perching room for the occupants to be tightly squeezed in. In 



one bird-dealer's place I saw about iifty dead birds that had been taken out of the cages in 



one morning. 



Dr. W. Macgillivray sends me the following note relati\'e to this species in the Cloncurry 

 District, Northern Queensland: — "The Warbling Grass-Parrakeet (Mciopsittafus undiilatus) 

 occurs during some years in prodigious numbers, and generally when the Cockatoo-Parrakeet 

 and " Galah " is also very common. I myself have seen these birds so numerous on the downs 

 country in the nesting season, September, October and November, that every available hollow 

 in standing trees soon become occupied, and recourse was made to hollow logs lying on the 

 ground. I well remember one such occupied from one end to the other with the eggs of these 

 little Parrakeets at all stages of incubation." 



Dr. Walter E. Roth, late Northern Protector of the Aborigines, Queensland, thus refers 

 to the mode of capture of Mclopsittacus uiuhdattis : — " The Budgerigar and other similar small 

 birds are caught with net and alley-way in the Upper Georgina River, and in the Boulia District. 

 Stretching from some waterhole in the neighbouring trees in which these birds liave been observed 

 to roost, two long divergent fences are built ; these are made with thick bushes, saplings, etc., 

 to a height of some eight to ten feet, and forty or fifty yards long. The space within the narrower 

 portion of the alley is cleared of trees, etc., that in the wider portion being left untouched. In 

 the very early morning a number of men sneak up towards the trees, bushes, etc., thereon 

 remaining, and with many a shout and every kind of noise will suddenly commence throwing 

 slicks and boomerangs into them. The birds being thus driven from their roosts by what they 

 believe to be Hawks, fly low and in a direction opposite to whence the noise proceeds, but not 

 43 



WARBLINO GR.^SS-PARKAKKET, 



