Jhe £mu 



Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



Birds of a feather. 



Vol. XVII.] isx JANUARY, 1918. [Part 3. 



Fleurieu Peninsula Rosella 



{Platycercns elegans fleiirieuensis). 



(Edwin Ashby, Emu, vol. xvii., part i, July, 1917.) 



By Edwin Ashby, M.B.O.U., R.A.O.U. 



The habitat of this bird seems to be confined to the Fleurieu 

 Peninsula, South Australia, extending from The Meadows to Cape 

 Jervis. While on several occasions during the past twenty years 

 I have noted exceptionally highly coloured Rosellas in the 

 neighbourhood of The Meadows, I had no opportunity to collect 

 specimens. Last Easter, on the occasion of a hurried motor trip 

 to Cape Jervis, Mr. Frank E. Parsons, R.A.O.U., and myself saw 

 between Yankalilla and Second Valley a large number of this 

 highly-coloured form, but when nearing Second Valley they 

 became very numerous ; every clump of gum-trees appeared to 

 be frequented by a flock of them, and each fiock had its quota of 

 highly-coloured birds. The brilliancy of the red on the under 

 side and rump marked them out as very distinct from the normal 

 form of Platycercns elegans adelaidensis. Except for the fact that 

 the tone of red is so distinct from typical Platycercns elegans, one 

 would have placed them with that species, but the character of 

 the red coloration links them up more closely with the Adelaide 

 Rosella. While many of these birds were frequenting the red 

 gums, in both the evening and morning considerable numbers 

 flocked to the box-thorn hedges in the township of Second Valley, 

 feeding on the red berries, which were produced in great profusion. 

 The notes and habits of this Parrot are, as far as I could judge, 

 identical with P. adelaidensis. The birds could be heard early 

 in the morning calling to one another with shrill whistling notes, 

 rapidly repeated three or four times. 



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