Edwin Ashby—Notes on Psephotus hcematonotus 131


twenty metres from our party. Without moving and unwearied, we

give ourselves up to the admiration of these superb birds, which prove

to be examples of Pyrrhura hcematotis, coloured green, dark red, and

pale blue.


On reaching the forest, we find its margin so dense that nothing can

be seen. Outside it is dry and warm. We force our way a few yards

within, and find everything changed. The air is damp and almost

fresh. Delicate palms, ferns of all kinds, and arums, deck the under¬

wood with delicate verdure ; on the trees, comparable in size to our

own, but throwing a deeper shade, flourish orchids and bromelias.

Cascades fall through the underwood ; the damp and gloom increase all

round us ; the ferns become more delicate and even translucent; and

the growth of vegetation is splendid. Beyond this entire acres are

covered with a single species of palm, a kind of Eterpe, with its

clustering trunks, smooth and annulated, crowned at the summit with

enormous flexible leaves ; and these, when fallen and dry, carpet the

ground beneath. Throughout this noiseless forest, not an insect and

scarcely a bird is to be seen. Near the edge a large banded Wren

has followed us with its sweet and musical song, and a little distance

away we surprise a troop of small green Toucans, Aulacorhamphus

sulcatus. Here and there, near the ground, may, be noticed small grey

Ant-thrushes, and from tree to tree flit a few Tanagers, the wonderful

Compsocoma sumptuosa, black and blue above, clear yellow below.

That is all I see. Doubtless, the forest shelters numbers of Curassows,

Guans, Tinamous, large Accipitres, as well as other birds ; but it

conceals them with care, as it conceals the Jaguars, Pumas, and Tapirs,

whose tracks we see on all sides.



NOTES ON PSEPHOTUS HMMATONOTUS , THE

RED-RUMPED GRASS PARRAKEET

By Edwin Ashby, F.L.S., M.B.O.U.


When I arrived in South Australia in January, 1885, the above

Parrakeet was extremely numerous in the immediate suburbs of

Adelaide. I remember seeing flocks of thirty or more in a flock at

Hectorville, about 5 miles from the centre of the city. The birds were



