102 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 449. GLOSSOPSITTA PORPHYROCEPHALUS. 



POEPHTRY-CROWNED LORIKEET. 



Psittacus purpurea, Diet. Phil. Mag. 1832, vol. xi. p. 387. 



purpureus, Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., vol. x. p. 747. 



Trichoglossus porphyrocephalus, Diet. Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xvii. 



p. 553. 

 Psitiacula floreniis, Bourj. de St.-Hil., Supp. Le Vaill. Hist, des Perr., 



pi. 84. 

 Glossopsitta porphyrocephalus, Bonap. Rev. et Mag. de Zool., 1854, 



p. 157. 

 Kow-ar, Aborigines of Western Australia. 



Trichoglossus porphyrocephalus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., 

 vol. V. pi. 63. 



This handsome little bird is abundant . in South Aus- 

 tralia, is equally numerous at Swan River, and in all pro- 

 bability is dispersed over the whole of the intermediate 

 country. It is the only true honey-feeding Lorikeet I have 

 seen from Western Australia, a circumstance which cannot be 

 accounted for, since the face of the country is covered with 

 trees of a character so conducive to the well-being of the other 

 members of the group. 



Most of the specimens I collected were shot during the 

 months of June and July in the neighbourhood of Adelaide, 

 and some of them in the town itself. It appears to arrive in 

 this district at the flowering season of the Eucalypti, in com- 

 pany with Triclioylossus multicolor, Glossopsitta australis and G. 

 pusilla, all of which may frequently be seen on the same tree 

 at one time. As this tribe of birds depends solely for its 

 subsistence upon the flowers of the gum-trees, their presence 

 in any locality would be vainly sought for at any season when 

 those trees are not in blossom. 



The sexes are precisely alike in size and in the colour of 

 their plumage. 



Forehead, lores and ear-coverts yellow, intermingled with 



