21 8 Mattingley, The Ground-Parrot. [isf a^hi 



ground at night, and are therefore easily caught by prowHng 

 foxes, since the strong scent emitted by them attracts the wily 

 animal. As they nest on the ground, the fox and other predatory 

 creatures, such as domestic cats gone wild, dingoes, native cats, 

 snakes, and lizards have little difftculty in obtaining their eggs 

 or young. 



An old correspondent of mine, Mr. Percy Peir, a well-known 

 aviculturist, of Sydney, has kept a pair of these Parrots alive for 

 some years in an aviary where the conditions were more suitable 

 than in the ordinary bird-cage, and where they could run about 

 on the ground. 



Ground-Parrots are exceedingly active and graceful in contour, 

 and the colour of their plumage is as distinctive as the livery of 

 many other Australian Parrots is gaudy. The adult plumage of 

 both sexes is similar, being dark grass-green, or, to be more 

 correct, a bright Rinnemann's green, barred alternately with 

 black and yellow, on the upper surface, and a yellowish-green, 

 barred also alternately with black and yellow, on the lower and 

 abdominal surfaces. The forehead is surmounted with a distinct 

 scarlet-tinged nopal red patch. The feet (which are somewhat 

 large, and have four toes) and legs, adapted for running, are of a 

 fleshy-pink colour tinged with blue-black.* 



Their food consists largely of grass-seed, such as that of 

 kangaroo-grass (Anthistiria), fruit of the tea-tree {Melaleuca), 

 wattle (Acacia) seed, and tender shoots of grasses. I am informed 

 by a Quail-shooter that the flesh of the Ground-Parrot is excellent 

 eating, and equal to that of Quail. 



The breeding period ranges through the months of September, 

 October, and November. The eggs usually number three or four 

 to a clutch, are round in form like most Parrots' eggs, and of a 

 glossy white colour, with a shell of fine texture. It is somewhat 

 remarkable that the eggs are not coloured, like those of most 

 ground-nesting birds. Coloured eggs afford some modicum of 

 protection from the prying eye of an enemy. This fact is all the 

 more noticeable when we know that the nest of the Ground- 

 Parrot is simply a somewhat deep hollow in the ground. The nest, 

 which is composed of grasses, is placed in a grass tussock or in 

 a mixture of heath and coarse grass, which, overlapping as a 

 rule, forms an overhead canopy. 



Three varieties or sub-species of the Ground-Parrot are 

 recorded for Australasia, viz. : — P. formosus, Latham^range, 

 South Queensland, ' New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia ; 

 P. ftaviventris, North — range, Western Australia ; P. leachi, 

 Mathews — range, Tasmania. 



* Little seems to be recorded with reference to the immature plumage of 

 Pezoporus. The red patch on the forehead is missing in the immature birds 

 during their infancy, but is represented as they develop by a small dull yellow- 

 patch, visible in both sexes. The plumage of the ventral surface generally is 

 more suffused with yellow, whilst the dark marking of the feathers,of the 

 throat is much more pronounced. 



