232 mr. j. gould on birds from central australia. [jlulc 9, 



5. On a Collection of Birds from Central Australia. 

 By John Gould, F.B.S., etc. 



The Board of Governors of the South Austrahan Institute having 

 hberally forwarded for my inspection a selection from the ornitholo- 

 gical collection made by Mr. Frederick G. Waterhouse during Mr. 

 Stuart's late Exploratory Expedition into Central Australia, I have 

 thought the matter of sufficient interest to bring these birds under 

 the notice of the Society, the more so as it will enable me to make 

 known through our ' Proceedings ' a new and very beautiful species 

 of Parrakeet pertaining to the genus Pohjteles, of which only two 

 have been hitherto known. Every ornithologist must be acquainted 

 with the elegant P. melanurus and P. barrabandi, and I feel assured 

 that the acquisition of an additional species of this lovely form will 

 be hailed with pleasure. The specific appellation I would propose 

 for this novelty is alexandrce, in honour of that Princess who, we 

 may reasonably hope, is destined at some future time to be the queen 

 of these realms and their dependencies, of which Australia is by no 

 means the most inconspicuous. 



POLYTELES ALEXANDRAS, Sp. UOV. 



Forehead delicate light blue ; lower part of the cheeks, chin, and 

 throat rose-pink ; head, nape, mantle, back, and scapularies olive- 

 green ; lower part of the back and rump blue, of a somewhat deeper 

 tint than that of the crown ; shoulders and wing-coverts pale yellowish 

 green ; spurious wing bluish green ; external webs of the principal 

 primaries dull blue, narrowly edged with greenish yellow, the re- 

 maining primaries olive-green, edged with greenish yellow ; under 

 wing-coverts verditer-green ; breast and abdomen olive-grey, tinged 

 with vinous ; thighs rosy red ; upper tail-coverts olive, tinged with 

 blue ; two centre tail-feathers bluish olive-green ; the two next on 

 each side olive-green on their outer webs and dark brown on the 

 inner ones ; the remaining tail-feathers tricoloured, the central por- 

 tion being black, the outer olive-grey, and the inner deep rosy red ; 

 under tail-coverts olive ; bill coral-red ; feet mealy brown. 



Total length 14 inches ; bill h ; wing 7 ; tail 9 ; tarsi \. 



Habitat. Howell's Ponds, Central Australia, 16° .54' 7" S. 1. 



Remark. — This is in every respect a tj^pical Polyteles, having the 

 delicate bill and elegantly striped tail characteristic of that form. It 

 is of the same size as P. barrabandi, but differs from that species 

 in having the crown blue and the lower part of the cheeks rose-pink 

 instead of yellow. 



The following is a list of the other species of birds comprised in 

 the collection : — 



Trichofflossus rubritorquis. Rare. 

 Aprosmictus erythropterns. 

 Platycercus broivnii. Rare. 

 Struthidea cinerea. 

 Climaeteris melanura. 



