'220 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



centre, on the upper back ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 bright red, as well as front edge of wing; feathers of 

 forehead red-brownish at base ; a red patch on the 

 throat ; flights below with blue inner webs ; tail below 

 blue ; beak black ; the base of upper mandible and cere 

 yellow ; feet yellow ; irides yellow. Female apparently 

 differing in having the red throat-patch narrower, 

 forming a longitudinal streak, sometimes orange-red. 

 Hab., Sula Islands. 



I have discovered no account of the wild life. An 

 example was purchased by the London Zoological 

 Society in 1865, and no other seems to have come since ; 

 it is, therefore, perhaps hardly more worth mentioning 

 than Russ' alleged example of L. pusillus, excepting 

 that its identification is certain. It seems, from a note 

 in Salvador's "Catalogue of the Parrots," that the 

 late George Gray mistook a young example of L. 

 galgulus for L. jiiisiUus, and Russ may have done the 

 same for all we know to the contrary. 



This concludes the present sub-family, and now we 

 pass on to the extremely popular Parrakeets of the 

 sub-family Platycercincc. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



SUB FAMILY PLATYCERCIN/E. 



(Broadtails, Horned Parrakeets and 

 many others). 



This group is characterised by a short, thick beak, 

 the upper mandible of which is usually swollen at the 

 sides and the lower mandible hidden by the feathers 

 of the cheeks ; the cere is small, only surrounding the 

 nostrils and forming a sort of saddle over the culrnen ; 

 tail rather long ; wings pointed ; some of the outermost 

 primaries narrowed towards the tips. 



In the Broadtails (Platycercus) the beak is distinctly 

 notched, and the feathers of the tail are broad and 

 not pointed at the tips. The species of this genus 

 range over Australia, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island, 

 and are mostly very brilliantly coloured, with the 

 feathers of the back' 'black with broad borders, which 

 gives them a scale-like appearance. They feed in their 

 wild state upon seeds, berries, and sometimes insects 

 and their larvae. Their food in captivity should consist, 

 according to Mr. Seth-Smith (" Parrakeets," p. 158), 

 " of canaryseed. hemp, oats and dari. pea-nuts, and 

 fruit, or green food, such as chickweed, groundsel or 

 flowering grass. Some are fond of insects, and meal- 

 worms may be given occasionally, especially towards the 

 nesting season." The sexes are much alike in pattern 

 and colouring, but the females are generally slightly 

 smaller, duller, and with less swollen upper mandible. 



MASTERS' PARRAKEET (Platycercus mastersianu*) 

 is doubtless a variety of Pennant's Parrakeet 



PENNANT'S PARRAKEET (Platycercus elegans). 

 The adult male has the head, neck, under surface, 

 rump, and upper tail coverts rich crimson ; the feathers 

 of the back and scapularies black, broadly margined 

 with crimson ; cheeks and shoulders blue ; greater wing 

 coverts pale blue : primaries and secondaries black; 

 with the basal half of their outer webs deep 'blue; the 

 four centre tail feathers bluish green, shading into 'blue 

 on their margins and tips ; remainder of tail feathers 

 black on the inner webs for three-quarters of their 



length, deep blue on the outer webs for nearly the same 

 length, and largely tipped with pale blue on both sides ; 

 ibeak, horn-coloured ; legs, blackish ibrown ; iris of eye, 

 dark brown. 



The female very closely resembles the male, but the 

 crimson of the upper parts and head is less vivid and 

 the tail greener. The entire bird is slightly smaller, 

 and its head is a trifle rounder ; her beak is not so> 

 much swollen in the middle. Haib., Eastern and 

 Southern Australia ; especially common in New South 

 Wales; probably introduced into Norfolk Island. 



This bird, according to Gould, is found on grassy hill* 

 and in bushes, especially of the Liverpool range- and 

 similar districts ; its natural food consists of berries, 

 grass seeds, and sometimes insects and caterpillars, to 

 obtain which it descends to the bases of the hills and 

 open glades. It runs rapidly over the ground, taut its 

 flight is not enduring ; it 'breeds in holes in the large 

 gum trees, especially those on hillsides within brush- 

 wood, the cedar brushes appearing to be its favourites. 

 Its breeding season extends from September to Novem- 

 ber ; it lays from four to seven white eggs on the rotten- 

 weed at the 'bottom of the holes. The song of this 

 species is said to 'be not unpleasant, though at times 

 it is a little given to screaming in a mild way. It is 

 tolerably peaceable, tractable, and quite capable of 

 being bred in a good-sized aviary ; in fact, there are 

 not a few cases on record of its having iheen reared' 

 in confinement ; indeed. Dr. Russ says that it has often- 

 ibeen bred, but that it rarely rears its young satis- 

 factorily. It is an absolutely hardy bird, quite capable 

 of resisting the cold of our severest winters in an 

 outdoor aviary. When breeding, this and all the 

 Platycerci should have an aviary to themselves 1 that 

 is to say, to each pair of birds. 



The Pennant's Parrakeet is tolerably freely imported 

 and not excessively dear ; the first pair to reach the 

 London Zoological Gardens was presented in 1861, since 

 which date many others have been added to the collec- 

 tion at Regent's Park. 



ADELAIDE PARRAKEET (Platycercus adelaidce). 



Differs from the preceding species in the brick or 

 orange-red colouring mixed with yellowish, in place of 

 the crimson of Pennant's Parrakeet ; the black feathers 

 of the back and those of the under parts with yellowish 

 or huffish edges, as also the red feathers of the rump 

 and upper tail-coverts ; the blue of the cheeks rather 

 paler, and the centre tail feathers decidedly green, 

 slightly washed with blue. The sexes differ exactly as, 

 in P. elegans. Hab., Southern Australia and the in- 

 terior of the Continent. 



Mr. Gould says of this species : "The Platycercus 

 tid<'I(iid<'n.*-i$ at first caused me considerable perplexity 

 from its close similarity in some stages of its plumage 

 to the /-*. pennantii; as in that species the plumage of 

 the young for the first season is wholly green, which 

 colouring gradually gives place to pale orange-red on the 

 head, rump, and upper surface, the scapularies and back 

 feathers being margined with the same, but which soon 

 disappears, and gives place to dull yellow on the flanks 

 and olive-yellow on the upper surface, the scapularies 

 and back feathers in the mature dress being edged with 

 yellowish-buff and violet. It was only by killing 

 numerous examples in all their various stages of 

 plumage, from the nestling to the adult, that I was 

 enabled to determine the fact of its being a distinct 

 species. 



"When I visited the interior of South Australia in 

 the winter of 1838 I found the adults associated in 

 small groups of from six to twenty in number ; while 

 near the coast, between Holdfast Bay and the Port of 



