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liigli UJ1 ill a lofty ti-o(>. wheupo tliey have a snod view of tHe 

 Tsurroiindiiig coiiiitry. On the first giirapse of an intruder a discor- 

 dant note is uttered by the outpost, and iminediattly the remain 

 tier of the party tal^e their heavy flopping flight, giving forth most 

 diabolical screeches and cries. 



— Parrots. — 



There is no part of Australia where one- or more species of 

 this great family of birds so characteristic to Australia are not 

 to be found. The parrot which first attracts one on Eyre's Pen- 

 insular is a very local one. The Port Lincoln parrot (Barnardius 

 zonarius) is a fine bird of striking colouration, being of a rich 

 darlv gretn above and straw yellow beneath, with the head black 

 and a deep ring of yellow round the back of the neck. Owing to 

 these parrots living well in captivity and being good whistlers, 

 they are much sought after, and I am son-y to say becoming each 

 year fewer in numbers — only an occasional pair to be met with in 

 the timber on the creek. The birds which made the most noise and 

 "were found in the greatest numbers were the gorgeous plumagtd 

 Blue Mountain Loriljeet (Trichoglossus — Novae Hollandiae), which 

 had collected in great numbers to nest in the hollow gum bough.s 

 near the creek. Their chattering and screeching were kept up the 

 livelong day. and in some of the old sugar gums, where several 

 pairs were nesting in the same tree, the noise was deafening. 

 They lay but two white eggs (of a slightly elongated form), on 

 the bare wood of a hollow limb, sometimes following the hollow 

 of the limb some distance to the main trunk of the tree. From 

 the continual passing in and out. to feed the young, many of the 

 brightly coloured feathers are pulled out by the uneven white ant- 

 oaten wood, and at times handfuls of their bright feathers are 

 found in the passage to the nest. Another excedingly interest- 

 ing parrot came under the notice of the party who visited Coffin's 

 Bay, and that was the pretty little rock parrot (Neophema 

 petrophlla), which has been lately placed on the totally protected 

 list by the Government — very rightly, too, for it is a very harm- 

 less, shy bird. Unlike other parrots, it does not seek hollow limbs 

 in which to rear its young; but in tlie nesting season repairs to 

 some barren island, and high up on its sea-girt coast, among 

 boulders and rocks.it seeks out holes or crevasses in the cliffs to 

 deposit its round white eggs on the decomposed rock, where it 

 rears its white downy little fledglings. One of the little lorikeets 

 was found nesting in an old gum, and several others had nests 

 in the same tree. This species, the porphy-crowned lorikeet 

 (Glossopsittacus porphyrocephalus) widely dispersed over southern 

 iind Western Australia, and depends entirely upon the honey-pro- 

 ilucing flowers of the eucalypti for its food. These little birds 



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