178 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



the greens matured to reds the yellows were arrested in develop- 

 ment, owing to the want of green-making superstructure. 



506. Platycercus eximius, Shaw, Rosella. 



(a.) In National Museum collection, Melbourne. Female. 



Head and chest red ; nape yellow and red ; cheeks normal 

 white ; back, upper tail coverts, and abdomen lemon-yellow ; 

 wing quills white, with a tinge of violet showing, as if attempting 

 to become the normal blue ; upper wing coverts white flushed 

 with yellow ; mid-tail quills yellowish white, lateral ones similar 

 with additional violet in parts. Instead of exhibiting strong 

 greenish-yellow the skin shows a clear lemon-yellow in its place, 

 and instead of blue on wings and tail the tendency is to be white 

 flushed with very hght violet. 



(&.) In the aviary of Mr, Sylvester Brown. 



This is a young bird of November, 1898. Soon after leaving 

 the nest it showed a rich yellow on the interscapulum, which six 

 months later had each feather edged with red, while most of the 

 under surface was yellow. By May, 1899, it had changed to red 

 throughout the whole ventral surface. The head is red ; the 

 edges of the interscapulum feathers and primary covert edges are 

 red in cuneate and semicircular markings, beyond these the nape 

 to the upper tail coverts are saffron -yellow ; the secondaries are 

 white ; the upper tail coverts are red, with a few yellows dispersed 

 among them ; the tail is white, washed with yellow • bill almost 

 ivory white ; legs, feet, and nails are flesh white, and the iris 

 hazel. Altogether to the eye this bird is a very beautiful 

 specimen. 



On a previous occasion ( Vict. Nat., xv., p. 79), I drew attention 

 to a spiral malformation of bill and nafls in a specimen of this bird. 



509. Platycercus ignitus, Leadbeater, Fiery Parrakeet. 



In collection of Dr. Chas. Ryan, Melbourne. 



Count Salvadori, in the " British Museum Catalogue of Birds," 

 vol. XX., 1891, refers to only two skins of this bird, one of which 

 is that of a young one, while Dr. Ramsay, in the " Australian 

 Museum Catalogue of Birds, Part 3, Psittaci," p. 62, places it 

 along with the Rosella, P. eximius. If the latter position be 

 correct we have now a third form, differing from those just 

 described by having the scarlet rump blotched with yellow. The 

 specimen was shot from a flock of P. eximius, by Dr. Ryan, at 

 Lancefield, Victoria, in the autumn of 1898, and was the only 

 one observed. 

 523. PsEPHOTUS MULTICOLOR, Temm., Many-coloured Parrakeet. 



Mr. John Gould, in his " Handbook," has called attention to 

 variations in this species. I find the humeral feathers vacillate 

 greatly between red and yellow in both eastern and western skins. 



