80 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



tail-feathers black on the internal webs, green on the external 

 webs and largely tipped with bright yellow, which increases in 

 extent as the feathers recede from the centre ; chest rich deep 

 scarlet ; under surface yellow, passing into green on the sides 

 of the chest and flanks. 



Total length 8 inches ; wing 4 J ; tail 4^ ; tarsi -J. 



The female differs in having the face and wing-coverts, both 

 above and beneath, of a pale lazuline blue, and in the chest 

 being green instead of scarlet. 



Sp. 438. EUPHEMA BOURKII. 



Boueke's Grass-Parrakeet. 

 Nanodss bourkii, Mitch. Australian Expeditions, vol. i. p. xviii. 



Euphema bourkii, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. v. pi. 43. 



Eor a knowledge of this Grass-Parrakeet, we are indebted 

 to the late Major Sir T. L. Mitchell, who discovered it on 

 the banks of the River Bogan, during one of his expeditions 

 into the interior of New South Wales. It is particularly 

 interesting, as exhibiting, in the crescentic form of the mark- 

 ings on the back, an approach to the style of colouring ob- 

 servable in the single species of the genus 3felojJsitiaciis 

 {M. undulatas) ; at the same time, in its structure it so closely 

 assimilates to the form of the genus Eiq:)hema, that I have 

 been induced to place it in that group. 



I did not meet with it during my own expedition, nor could 

 I gain any information whatever respecting it ; it is therefore 

 another of those Australian birds to which I would direct the 

 attention of the travellers who may hereafter visit the interior, 

 over which it will doubtless prove to be widely spread, for 

 Captain Sturt found it in abundance at the Depot in Central 

 Australia. 



Band across the forehead, shoulders above and beneath, 

 secondaries and base of the primaries deep blue ; flanks and 



