HANDBOOK 



BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



Order INSESSORES. 

 Family PSITTACID^. 



No group of birds gives to Australia so tropical and foreign 

 an air as the numerous species of this great family, by which 

 it is tenanted, each and all of which are individually very 

 abundant. Immense flocks of white Cockatoos are sometimes 

 seen perched among the green foliage of the loftiest trees ; the 

 brilliant scarlet breasts of the Rose-hills blaze forth from the 

 yellow flowering Acacia: the Tric/w^lossi or Honey-eating Par- 

 rakeets enliven the flowering branches of the larger Eucalypti 

 with their beauty and their lively actions ; the little Grass 

 Parrakeets rise from the plains of the interior and render these 

 solitary spots a world of animation ; nay the very towns, parti- 

 cularly Hobart Town and Adelaide, are constantly visited by 

 flights of this beautiful tribe of birds, which traverse the 

 streets with arrow-like swiftness, and chase each other precisely 

 after the manner the Cypseli are seen to do in our own islands. 

 In Tasmania I have seen flocks of from fifty to a hundred 

 of the Platycerciis fiaviventris^ like tame pigeons, at the 

 barn-doors in the farm-yards of the settlers, to which 

 they descend for the refuse grain thrown out with the 



VOL. II. B 



