160 DR. J. MURIE ON GEOPSITTACUS OCCIDENTALIS. [Feb. 27, 



The tail, 4| inches in greatest length, possesses 12 rectrices, each 

 of an acuminate form. The four middle feathers are barely so long as 

 the two outside of them. The remaining outermost ones decrease 

 from within outwards, so that the posterior terminal edge of the 

 tail has a rounded or deep-arched contour. 



Notwithstanding the scantiness of material origiaally at his com- 

 mand, Mr. Gould nevertheless had felicitiously caught the main cha- 

 racters of this somewhat remarkable, or, as he termed it, " anoma- 

 lous bird." In his later ' Supplement to the Birds of Australia,' 

 he has given a very charming figure of it from the living specimen, 

 and by his own pencil. This delineation, in other respects excellent, 

 seems to ma to have the head aud body rather fuller than natural ; 

 in this way the resemblance to Pezoporus is not so striking as under 

 more favourable circumstances it might be. 



Of course one cannot well judge or compare living animals with 

 stuffed specimens ; but as far as my examination extends, excepting, 

 it may be, in the length of tail, there is a much nearer likeness in 

 form between these birds than Mr. Gould has admitted in his text. 



Fig. 1. 



Head of Geopsittacus [Pezoportcs) occidentalis. Nat. size. Drawn from the 

 bird immediately after death. 



Besides colour and build of body, the beak and legs, among the 

 external characters, are worthy of especial remark. 



The upper mandible is thick-set, and projects quite beyond the 

 lower ; it is 5'" long and 3 " deep at its basal end. The culmen is 

 broad, which gives the beak a flattened appearance anteriorly. The 

 lateral tooth-like expansion near the angle of the gape, present in 

 many genera of Parrots, is here wanting, as is the case in Pezoporus 

 and the genus Platycercus generally. 



The cere, even for a Parrot, is unusually large, full, and fleshy. 

 It is slate-coloured. Gould describes it as large and grey. The 

 opening of the nostrils is wide, roundish, aud directed upwards and 

 outwards (see fig. 1). 



In front and below the cere there is a small pencil of elongated 

 bristle-like hairs. These are directed forwards and outwards. 



As the bird is seen standing en the ground, the legs appear rela- 



