THE PAKADISE PARROT TRAGEDY 187 



Night Parrot? How rarely the Green Ground Par- 

 rot is reported! What has become of the regal 

 Euphema splendida, the Scarlet-chested Grass Par- 

 rot? (Once a plentiful species, only one company 

 has been recorded in recent years, and that a small 

 lot in South Australia.) 



And what of that Paradise Parrot in miniature, 

 the Turquoisine or Chestnut-shouldered Parrot? 

 The late A. J. North, who had a wide circle of cor- 

 respondents, wrote in 1911 that he had for years re- 

 ceived inquiries from aviculturists concerning this 

 bird, but had not been able to afford them any infor- 

 mation, the last specimen received at the Australian 

 Museum (Sydney) being dated 1886. (This of a 

 bird which John Gould had found quite common in 

 N.S.W. in the 'forties, and which another early bird- 

 man, writing in the 'sixties, alluded to as "this beau- 

 tiful but common species!") Two years later (in 

 1913), Mr. W. H. Workman, M.B.O.U., wrote to The 

 Emu, from Dublin, drawing attention to "the disap- 

 pearance from the bird-markets during the last 

 twenty years of the beautiful little Turquoisine Par- 

 rakeet," and expressing the fear that the species had 

 "gone the way of the Dodo and the Passenger 

 Pigeon." 



"If our worst fears are realized," added Mr. 

 Workman, "and this little bird has gone for ever, I 

 think it would be of interest to ornithologists all the 

 world over if a short history of the species were 

 published in The Emu." 



The editors of The Emu appraised the question as 

 an important one, and asked ornithologists through- 

 out Australia for notes upon the species, either from 

 past or present experience. There was no re- 



