INSESSORES. 53 



blue; primaries and secondaries blackish-brown, the basal 

 half of their external webs deep blue, the apical half pale 

 blue ; tertiaries black, broadly margined with greenish yellow ; 

 breast pale greenish yellow ; abdomen light greenish blue ; 

 all the feathers of the under surface slightly fringed with 

 black; under tail-coverts scarlet, narrowly margined with 

 yellow ; two middle tail-feathers greenish blue ; the next on 

 each side blue, slightly tipped with pale blue ; the remainder 

 blackish brown at the base of their internal webs, and deep 

 blue externally, their apical portions being beautiful pale 

 blue. 



Total length 13 inches; wing 6J; tail 7 ; tarsi f. 



Sp. 421. PLATYCERCUS VENUSTUS. 



Beautiful Parrakeet. 



Psittacus venustus, Kuhl, Nov. Acta, vol. x. p. 52. 



brownii, Temm. in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. p. 119. 



Brown's Parrot, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 139. 



Platycercus brownii, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 282. 



venustus, Kuhl, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., p. 529. 



Mo'6n-dark, Aborigines of Port Essington. 

 Smutty Parrot, Residents at ditto. 



Platycercus brownii, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. v. pi. 31. 



This is a very abundant species on the northern and north- 

 western coast of Australia, where it inhabits grassy meadow- 

 like land and the edges of swamps, and mostly feeds upon 

 the seeds of grasses and other plants, sometimes it is seen 

 in pairs, but more frequently in families of from ten to 

 twenty in number. It frequently utters a rapid succession 

 of double notes resembling ' trin-se trin-se' Its flight is low, 

 somewhat rapid and zigzag, seldom farther prolonged than 

 from tree to tree. Specimens of this bird, given me by my 

 friends Sir George Grey and Mr. Bynoe, from the north-west 

 coast, differ somewhat in plumage from those killed on the 



