168 BUSH WANDEEINGS. 



recollect, in the middle of the summer 1854, our gum- 

 trees swarmed with them. They stayed about a month, 

 when they suddenly disappeared, and only an odd strag- 

 gler or so has been since seen in our district. I should 

 say that this is the handsomest paroqueet in the colony, 

 and is well known at home, as a cage-bird, by the name 

 of the zebra paroqueet. It is smaller than the loriqueet, 

 which it rather resembles in shape. The ground colour is 

 light sea-green, prettily striped, and variegated with yellow 

 and black ; a light yellow forehead, and three or four- 

 deep purple spots on each cheek. But it is impossible 

 to do justice to the beauties of this class of birds in 

 a pen-and-ink sketch. The shell paroqueet is very 

 common on the Adelaide side. 



"We now come to the Ground Paroq^ueets, and these 

 can be easily distinguished from the others by their long 

 thin legs, straighter claws, and smaller beaks ; and they 

 can all run well upon the ground, which the other species 

 cannot. "We had, I think, two varieties of common 

 ground paroqueets, which were always in flocks on the 

 plains or in the heather, often under the large honey- 

 suckles, and they appeared to remain with us throughout; 

 the year. Unlike the swamp parrot, these little birds 

 fly much into the trees, although they always feed upon 

 the ground. They are smaller than the loriqueet, of a 

 light green above and bright yellow below ; the tail long 

 and pointed, yellow underneath. One variety had blue 

 on the forehead. The other was a duller and plainer bird. 



But the Bed-sJioiildered Grou7id Faroqiieet was by far 





