INSESSORES. 41 



is principally on the banks of the latter, either among the 

 "high-flooded gums" or the larger shrub-like trees along the 

 edges of the water that this beautiful species is seen, and 

 where the brilliant hues of its expanded wings and tail show 

 very conspicuously as it passes from tree to tree amidst the 

 dark masses of foliage. 



The range of Barnard's Parrakeet extends throughout the 

 interior from South Australia to New South Wales, but it 

 seldom appears within the boundary of the latter colony ; I 

 never met with it nearer than the Liverpool Plains, from 

 which northwards towards the interior its numbers increased, 

 and it doubtless inhabits the banks of the Darling and all 

 other rivers which disembogue into Lake Alexandrina; and in 

 confirmation of this opinion I may state that I found it abund- 

 ant in the Great Murray scrub of South Australia. It is ge- 

 nerally met with in small companies of from five to ten in 

 number, sometimes on the ground among the tall grasses, at 

 others among the high trees, particularly the Eucalypti. 



The sexes differ but little in colour ; the males are, how- 

 ever, at all times the largest and finest in plumage. 



I did not succeed in obtaining the eggs of this species, 

 although it was breeding in all the large trees of the different 

 parts of the country I visited. 



Forehead red ; crown, cheeks, chest, abdomen, central 

 portion of wing, and rump verditer-green ; occiput crossed 

 by a band of brown, succeeded by a crescent-shaped mark of 

 yellow ; back bluish grey ; centre of the abdomen crossed by 

 a broad crescent of orange ; primaries and spurious wing 

 black ; the external margin of each feather and the tip of 

 the shoulder rich deep blue ; two central tail-feathers deep 

 green, passing into deep blue at the tip ; the lateral feathers 

 deep blue at the base, gradually fading into bluish white at 

 the tip ; bill horn colour ; feet brown. 



