132 Edwin Ashby — Notes on Psephohis hcemcitonotus


always to be found in the large Red Gums ( Eucalyptus rostratus), which

grew and still grows along the watercourses that come down from the

hills and flow into the River Torrens. Throughout the Adelaide hills

during the years 1885-7 these birds were in great numbers. At

Mt. Barker during those years I sometimes saw the limbs of lofty dead

Gum-trees almost bristling with these birds. Anywhere throughout

that district, only 23 miles from Adelaide, in the morning and evening,

flocks of hcematonotus were feeding in the grass paddocks, the bright

plumage of the males (red, yellow, blue, and green) lending a charm to

the landscape all its own.


I left for England in 1887 and returned in January, 1888. On

my return I found that a sad fatality had befallen these beautiful birds.

Through the attack of some disease the birds of this species had lost

the power to regain their feathers after the annual moult, and swarms

of naked but otherwise healthy and vigorous birds were everywhere

running about in the long, dry grass absolutely destitute of feathers.

I caught several of them, but they showed themselves such adepts at

the use of their bills on one’s fingers that one was glad to leave them

alone. They were feeding on grass seeds and the seeds of other prostrate

plants, and appeared, as before stated, quite healthy otherwise. Next

spring there were none to be seen. Whether their extinction was due

to predacious animals, cats, etc., or only due to the cold of the winter,

I do not knoAv. I am inclined to think that the latter was the most

potent factor. From that year, 1888, till the present, 1922, I haAm not

seen any of these birds in their old haunts at Hectorville, though the

large timber still remains. In the Adelaide hills they disappeared

altogether for at least ten years, and after that on one or two occasions

I observed an odd pair or so. After the lapse of more than thirty years

they have become fairly common, but probably even now there is

barely a tenth of the number there used to be prior to the epidemic

of 1888.


I am unable to determine the area affected, but I should think it

quite safe to estimate that it would equal at least 100 miles in diameter.

During the period when they were quite absent from the Adelaide

district I saw a fairly large flock near Ballarat in Victoria, say 600 miles

aAvay. And about five years ago when visiting about 200 miles north



