40 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus PLATYCERCUS, Vigors. 



All the members of this very well defined genus are 

 extremely ornamental ; they have very ample tails, and the 

 power of displaying them in a manner to show off the 

 beautiful colours with which this organ is adorned. The 

 species are very widely spread, for they are found from 

 Tasmania in the south to Port Essington in the north. 

 None of them, I believe, have an osfmcatorium, the absence 

 of which would seem to have some influence on their flight, 

 for they seldom employ their wings further than as a means 

 of transport from places where they obtain an abundant 

 supply of the grass-seeds upon which they mainly subsist, to 

 the nearest trees of the neighbouring forest ; very unlike, 

 indeed, is their flight to that of Ptistes, which passes high in 

 the air from one part of the country to another. 



Bonaparte, who has subdivided the Flatycerci still farther 

 than I have done here, places the three species with stouter 

 bills and less ample tails (P. barnardi, P. semitorquatus, and 

 P. zonarius) in a genus by themselves, under the name of 

 Barnardkis ; but as I conceive such terms objectionable when 

 employed generically, and the differences alluded to unimpor- 

 tant, I think I shall be excused for not separating these birds 

 from Platycercus. 



Sp. 412. PLATYCERCUS BARNARDI. 



Barnard's Parrakeet. 



Barnard's Parrot, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 121. 



Platycercus barnardi, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans,, vol. xv. p. 283. 



Barnardivs typicus, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool., 1854, p. 153. 



Platycercus bamardii, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v. pi. 21. 



To see Barnard's Parrakeet in perfection, and to observe 

 its rich plumage in all its glory, the native country of the 

 bird must be visited, its brooks and streamlets traced ; for it 



