Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 651 



XLI. — Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



I^HE following letters have been received : — 



Sir, — The following may possibly be of sufficient interest 

 for publication in 'The Ibis.^ Naturalists who have paid 

 some attention to the study of Psittacine birds will be 

 familiar with the handsome Australian Broadtail known 

 as Pennant's Parrakeet [Ptatycercus eleyans), and will be 

 aware that whereas the plumage of the adult is mainly 

 crimson, that of the young is for the most part green, the 

 complete mature dress not being assumed for over a year. 

 For some time past I have been engaged in an attempt to 

 partially acclimatise certain of the Platycercinfe, and after 

 a number of failures succeeded tbis year in inducing a pair 

 of Pennants to nest and rear their young at complete 

 liberty. The latter^ to my great surprise, have just left 

 the nest in what is, with the exception of a few greenish 

 feathers on the wing, the full crimson plumage of the adult, 

 a circumstance which appears to me to be most interesting 

 and remarkable. So far as I am aware. Pennants bred in 

 English aviaries have not hitherto shown any abnormality 

 of plumage, and moreover the Port Adelaide Parrakeet 

 (JPlatycercus adelaidce), a very near relative of the Pennant, 

 has several times bred with me at liberty and never failed 

 to produce young which carried their immature dress (which 

 is very similar to that of the Pennant) for the full natural 

 period- 

 It is, I believe, held by some authorities that all primitive 

 types of birds were soberly coloured and that n sliowy dress 

 is first assumed by the male, later by the female, and last of 

 all by the young. One would naturally expect these changes 

 to be extremely gradual, but here apparently we have an 

 instance in which the final change is brought about quite 

 suddenly. It would be interesting to know whether the 

 parents of my young birds were green or red in their first 

 plumage ; but as they were both imported from Australia 



