THE SCAE1ET LOWEY. 161 



very common, and I generally used to find them in pairs 

 among the stringy-bark trees, but I have occasionally 

 seen them in small flocks. They are very shy, and it is 

 difficult to get within gunshot of them. When disturbed, 

 they would take a long flight round and round, making 

 the forest re-echo with their loud call-note, " kakadua, 

 kakadua," often and quickly repeated. 



We had a species of small cockatoo, which we called 

 the Corella ; the body was grey, tinted with yellowish 

 green, and the male had a long, thin, crimson crest. In 

 the female, the crest is yellow. It was not quite so large 

 as the African grey parrot, which it much resembled in 

 shape. They were only occasional visitants to our parts, 

 and I always saw them in pairs. 



By far the finest parrot that I have seen in Australia, 

 is the King Parrot, which was, however, very rare in 

 our forests, and what few I killed were principally im- 

 mature birds, for the king parrot, like the satin-bird and 

 the scarlet lowry, does not attain its full plumage until 

 after the third or fourth moult. Although rare with us 

 in certain places they are as common as the red lowry, 

 which bird it seemed, as far as I could see, to resemble 

 much in habit, and I think they are of the same species. 

 The king parrot is not much less than the magpie at 

 home. The plumage of an old male is a dark green 

 body, with flaming red breast. The females and young 

 birds are much duller in plumage. 



Although not so largo a bird, I think an old male 



Scarlet Lowry quite as splendid in plumage as the king 



ii 



