FOREIGN" BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



coverts, and a contiguous patch on the skies, are uriglu 

 red ; the crown of the head is black, shading into blue ; 

 the shoulders and base of the primaries are also blue ; 

 the tail is deep red, shading into blue towards the tip ; 

 the under parts are yellowish-green ; the beak is 

 yellowish, the legs are grey. Female smaller and duller, 

 with narrower beak, but with a broader and shorter 

 terminal hook. Hab., South-Easteru Australia, from 

 the Wide Bay district to Victoria and Tasmania. 



Gould says that it is "a migratory species, passing 

 the summer and breeding season only in the more 

 southern parts of the Australian Continent and Tas- 

 mania, and retiring northwards for the remainder of the 

 year. During September and the four following months 

 it is not only abundant in all the gum forests of 

 Tasmania, but is very common in the shrubberies ami 

 gardens at Hobart Town. It is frequently to be seen 

 on the gum-trees bordering the streets, within a few 

 feet of the heads of the passing inhabitants, and s.> 

 intent upon gathering the honey from the fresh-blown 

 flowers which daily expand, as almost entirely to dis- 

 regard their presence. The tree to which it is so eagerly 

 attracted is the Eucalyptus gibbosu*. cultivated speci- 

 mens of which appear to have finer blossoms than those 

 in their native forests. It is certainly the finest of the 

 Eiicah/fifi I have ever seen, and when its pendent branches 

 are covered with thick clusters of pale yellow blossoms, 

 presents a most beautiful appearance: the\se blossoms 

 are so charged with saccharine matter that the birds 

 soon rill themselves with honey, even to their very 

 throats: several of those I shot, Upon being held up by 

 their feet, discharged from their months a stream of 

 this liquid to the amount of a dessertspoonful. Small 

 flocks of from four to twenty in number are also fre- 

 quently to be seen passing over the town, chasing each 

 other. "like the Swift of Europe, whence in all proba- 

 bility has arisen its Colonial name. Sometimes these 

 flights appear to be taken for the sake of exercise, or in 

 mere playfulness of disposition, while at others the 

 birds are* passing from one garden to another, or pro- 

 ceeding from the town to the forests at the foot of 

 Mount Wellington, or vice versa. Their plumage eo 

 closely assimilates in colour to the leaves of the trees 

 they 'frequent, and they, moreover, creep so quietly 

 yet" actively from branch to branch, clinging in every 

 'possible position, that -were it not for their movements 

 and the trembling of the leaves, it wr/uld be difficult to 

 perceive them without a minute examination of the 

 tree upon which they have alighted. I found 1 them 

 breeding about midway between Hobart Town and 

 Brown's River, but was not fortunate enough to obtain 

 their eggs, in consequence of their being laid in holes 

 of the loftiest- and most inaccessible trees. They are 

 said to be two in number, and perfectly white." 



Russ says that "since 1879 this species has been 

 imported now and again during the spring months in 

 several pans, at other times rarely. If accustomed to 

 seeds it is long lived. Altogether an amiable room 

 companion. In'the bird-room gentle and graceful, yet 

 always restless, and quarrelsome towards all other in- 

 habitants. It has not the deafening cry of the Mountain 

 Lory, only occasionally the male cries tolerably shrilly 

 as he sits" on a branch with a peculiar fluttering of his 

 beautifully-coloured wings. Male and female, the latter 

 more softly, possess a pleasing yet little varying singing 

 utterance. They are fond of climbing, fly little. Close 

 cage-bars are necessary, because they recklessly force 

 their headis through. Not yet bred." 



It is a question whether this bird should not have 

 been regarded as an aberrant form of the family 

 Lnriidfp. to which it exhibits s-.tro-,,g affinity. The first 

 two specimens to reach the London Zoological Gardens 



piu-chased in 1863. tlie last pair (recorded in the 

 ninth edition of the List of Animals) in 1884. 



The genus Melopsittacti* has narrow and pointed tail- 

 feathers, and the upper mandible is not notched'; it 

 con/tains one species, the Bud'gerigair, which in cap- 

 tivity can be kept upon canary-seed alone, but I think 

 it does better when supplied also with millet and a few 

 oats. When ibreeddng bread soaked in cold waiter and 

 then squeezed as dry as possible, should be given, as- 

 well as duckweed or grass in flower. 



BUDGERIGAR 



The cock bird has the crown of !the head cowslip 

 yellow ; the back of the head, cheeks, mantle, and 

 wing-covertis greyish yellow 'barred with black, the 

 feathers of the shoulder being slightly tingedi with 

 emerald green here and there ; the chin and throat 

 bright sulphur yellow. An irregular streak composed 

 of ultramarine blue and black spots separates the barred 

 grey of the cheek from the bright yellow of the throat; 

 this streak is followed at the back of the throat by 

 two or three lateral black spots; the breast, belly, 

 thighs, and under tail-coverts are of the most intensely 



brilliant emerald green colour ; the back and upper 

 tail-coverts are of a similar, but slightly bluer, green ; 

 primaries deep grey, edged yellow, and with greenish 

 outer web ; the two middle tail-feathers are deep blue, 

 slightly greenish towards the base, the remainder bright 

 yellow, broadly tipped with dull blue shading into pea- 

 cock-green, the borders of the outer web also washed 

 Avith pale emerald-green; the cere, in the breeding 

 season', is bright blue, but after 'that sea.son it becomes 

 much dulled (so that the inexperienced at this time 

 sometimes mistake cocks for hens) ; the beak is white 

 and _ the legs grey, irddes straw whitish. The hen has 

 a slightly shorter beak, the cere being pale blue with 

 white- borders when not breeding, but thik changes 

 to a coffee-brown colour in the breeding season ; the 

 head is paler, the crown being pale primrose yellow, 

 and the sides of head and throat slight! v less vivid, the 

 blade barring is not quit so sharply defined, and the 

 green of the under-pants is just perceptibly yellower. 

 Haib. , Australia from the Gulf of Carpentaria and Port 

 Denison on the East, through the interior, to New 

 South Wales, Victoria., West and South-West Australia. 



This well-known and abundant little Parrot is some- 

 times called the "Undulated Grass Parrakeet." 



Gould says (" Handbook," Vol. II., pp. 82, 83) : " On 

 arriving at Brezi, to the north of the Liverpool Plains, 

 in the beginning of December. I found myself sur- 

 rounded by numbers, breeding in all the hollow spouts 

 of the large Eucalypti (bordering the Mokaa ; and on 

 crossing the plains between that river and the Peel, 



