The Hooded Parrakeet.



151



this as much as possible many are full-winged and many are half

pinioned, about four primary feathers being taken off so that they

can get up and fly pretty well, but it is too laborious a business to

make them want to migrate.


A pair of half-pinioned Gargany Teal went away and success¬

fully reared eight young ones, all of which flew away in September.

Pintails, Gadwall, Wig'eon, reared their young. Many Pochards

were reared, and the full-winged Mandarins did very well, but not so

well as in 1911. They have extended their range a good deal, and I

hear of them some miles away, but they are very secretive and show

very little, and in this country frequent the most thickly-wooded

ponds and pits. Ours practically keep to themselves, rarely coming

to feed with other ducks. A very few have been accidentally shot, I

have eaten them. They are quite eatable, but I should not call them

a good duck ; anyhow a male in full plumage seems far too beautiful

to pluck and cook !



THE HOODED PARRAKEET.


Psephotus dissimilis (Collett).


By Gregory M. Mathews.


The last number of this Magazine (p. 108) contained a note

regarding P. cucullatus (North) and P. chrysopterygius (Gould) by

Mr. Hubert D. Astley.


As there is much of interest in connection with these birds, I

offer the following remarks : — When Gould published the beautiful

plate of Psephotus chrysopterygius in the Birds of Australia, Sup¬

plement Plate 64, he wrote : “ One of the greatest pleasures enjoyed

by the late celebrated botanist, Robert Brown, during the last thirty

years of his life, was to now and then exhibit the drawing of a

parrot, made by one of the brothers Bauer from a specimen pro¬

cured somewhere on the north coast of Australia, but of which no

specimen was preserved at the time, and none had since been

brought to England. It afforded him at times much amusement

to exultingly show me this drawing as a bird I could not find, and

which I had not included in my great work on the birds of that



