54 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Cobourg Peninsula ; the concentric bands on the breast are 

 much finer, the extreme margins only of the feathers being 

 black ; I have one specimen also with the whole of the crown 

 of the head of a deep blood-red, and others with more or less 

 of this colour. That this kind of plumage is unusual is 

 proved by the fact of numerous specimens from Port Essington 

 not exhibiting it, and had I not seen others from the north- 

 west with black crowns (with the exception of the band across 

 the forehead), I should have regarded as specific what I now 

 look upon as a mere local variety, or possibly a very old bird. 



Crown of the head, lores, and ear-coverts deep black ; 

 cheeks snow-white, bounded below with blue ; breast and 

 rump pale yellow, each feather slightly fringed with black ; 

 feathers of the back deep black, with a broad margin of pale 

 yellow ; wing-coverts, outer webs of the secondaries, and base 

 of the primaries rich blue, inner webs of the primaries and 

 secondaries deep black; under tail-coverts scarlet; centre 

 tail-feathers green at the base, passing into blue on the 

 margins and at the tip ; lateral feathers deep blue at the 

 base of the outer webs, brown at the base of the inner webs, 

 and then pale blue, terminating in white, with black shafts ; 

 irides blackish brown ; bill light horn-colour, passing into 

 blue at the base ; legs and feet blackish brown. 



Young birds are similar in colour, but have all the markings 

 dull and indistinct ; as the individual approaches to maturity 

 the breast becomes ornamented with a number of crescent- 

 shaped markings of black and pale yellow, and as the bird 

 advances in age the yellow increases in extent and the black 

 nearly disappears. 



Hitherto this bird has been known to ornithologists as the 

 the Platycercus hrowni^ a specific appellation applied to it in 

 honour of the celebrated botanist ; but which, I regret to say, 

 must give place to the prior one of venustus. 



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