■'jO birds of AUSTRALIA. 



ticiilarly sucli as are low and humid, and where the large 

 Casuarince grow in the greatest profusion. All the brushes 

 stretching along the southern and eastern coast appear to be 

 equally favoured with its presence, as it there finds a plenti- 

 ful supply of food, consisting of seeds and berries. At the 

 period when the Indian corn is becoming ripe it leaves its 

 umbrageous abode and sallies forth in vast flocks, which 

 commit great devastation on the ripening grain. It is rather 

 a dull and inactive species compared with the members of the 

 restricted genus Flafi/cercus ; it flies much more heavily, and 

 is very different in its disposition, for although it soon becomes 

 habituated to confinement, it is less easily tamed and much 

 less confiding and familiar; the great beauty of the male, 

 however, somewhat compensates for this unpleasant trait, and 

 consequently it is highly prized as a cage-bird. 



I was never so fortunate as to find the eggs of this species, 

 neither could I gather any information respecting this part of 

 the bird's economy ; and I am inclined to look with suspi- 

 cion on the account of its breeding given by Mr. Caley in the 

 Linnean Transactions : in my opinion it must have reference 

 to some other bird. 



When fully adult the sexes differ very considerably in the 

 colouring of the plumage, as will be seen by the following 

 descriptions. 



The male has the head, neck and all the under surface scar- 

 let ; back and wings green, the inner webs of the primaries 

 and secondaries being black ; along the scapularies a broad 

 line of pale verdigris green ; a line bounding the scarlet at 

 the back of the neck, the rump and upper tail-coverts rich 

 deep blue ; tail black ; pupil large and black ; irides narrow 

 and yellow ; bifl scarlet ; legs mealy brown. 



The female has the head and all the upper surface green j 

 throat and chest green tinged with red ; abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts scarlet ; rump dull blue ; two centre tail-feathers 

 green ; the remainder green, passing into bluish black ; and 



