THE BLUE MOITNTAINEEE. 163 



much, but keep about the localities where they are bred. 

 "We generally saw them in small flocks, and they were 

 sure to be about the little bush-farms. It much re- 

 sembles the lowry in shape, habits, and flight ; but, un- 

 like that bird, is often seen feeding on the ground ; and 

 it is altogether a tamer and more domestic kind of bird. 

 The male and female are alike in plumage, but the male 

 is much the handsomest. 



One of the most dashing of all the parrots is the Blue 

 Mountaineer, which, unlike the three last, is ahoney-eater. 

 On this account, the blue mountain parrots are certain 

 migrants to and from different districts, and their migra- 

 tions are regulated by the state of the blossoms of the 

 gum and honeysuckles, upon which they feed ; not that 

 they ever entirely left our forests, for I rarely went out 

 at any time without seeing a pair or so. But the large 

 flocks of them only come at such times as the trees are 

 full of honey, and depart as suddenly as they come. 

 The blue mountaineer is a splendid parrot : body sea- 

 green, head lavender-blue, the breast beautifully mottled 

 and watered with red, yellow, and orange ; the tail green 

 and sharp pointed, the middle feathers longest, but 

 altogether much shorter than in the other species ; the 

 wing-feathers with each a large spot of yeUow, and the 

 under- wing coverts flaming red, which gives the birds a 

 splendid appearance as they dash through the forests, like 

 lightning, screaming as they go in all the wild joy of their 

 native freedom. They are always in larger or smaller 

 flocks, do not associate with the other parrots, and are never 

 m: 2 



