THE YELLOW-BELLIED PAERAKEET. 



513 



It would appear to be more numerous in the eastern divisions of Australia tlian in the 

 western. During the summer of 1839, it was breeding in all the apple-tree {Angoplwra) 

 flats on the Upper Hunter as well as in similar districts on the Peel and other rivers which 

 flow northward. 



After the breeding season is over, it congregates In numerous flocks before taking its 

 dejDarture. I have seen the ground quite covered by them while engaged in procuring 

 food ; and it was not an unusual circumstance to see hundreds together in the dead 

 branches of the gum-trees in tha 

 neighbourhood of water, a plenti- 

 ful supply of which would appear 

 to be essential to its existence ; 

 hence we may reasonably suppose 

 that the interior of the country is 

 not so sterile and inhospitable as is 

 ordinarily imagined, aud that it yet 

 may be made available for the uses 

 of man. The Harlequin Bronze- 

 wing and the Warbling Grass 

 Parrakeet are also denizens of that 

 part of the country, and equally 

 unable to exist without water." 



The head and throat of this 

 species are yellow, and there is a 

 patch of crimson on the ears. 

 Upon the head there is a long, 

 slender, painted crest, yellow at 

 the base and grey at the tij), 

 giving the bird so curious an 

 aspect that at first sight it ap- 

 pears either to be a cockatoo or a 

 Parrakeet as the eye is directed 

 to the crest or the general form. 

 The back and under portions of 

 the body are brown, and a large 

 part of the wings is white. The 

 central tail-feathers are brown, 

 and the rest grey. The female 

 is distinguished from her mate 

 by a green tinge which pervades 

 the yellow of the head and throat, 

 and the numerous bars of yellow 

 and dark blackish brown which 

 cross the tail. 



YEIXOW-BELLIED PARRAKEET.— Pte<2/cera« Calcdonieiix, 



The genus Platycercus, or 

 Wide-tailed Parrakeets, to which 

 the Yellow-bellied Paerakeet 

 belongs, is a very exten.sive one, 

 and numbers among its members 

 some of the loveliest of the Parrot 



tribe. They all glow with the purest azure, gold, carmine, and green, and are almost 

 immediately recognisable by the laold lancet-shaped feathers of the back, and the manner 

 in Vv'hich each feather is defined by its light edging and dark centre. 



The Yellow-bellied Parrakeet inhabits the whole of Van Diemen's Land and the islands 

 of Bass Straits, where it is very plentiful, and often so completely familiar as to cause 

 extreme wonder in the mind of an Englishman who for the first time traverses the roads of 



2. LL 



