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The Red-Mantled Parrakeet.



THE RED-MANTLED PARRAKEET.


Platycercus erythropephis.


This very fine Parrakeet was described by Count Salvadori

from a specimen living in the Zoological Society’s Gardens when

he wrote the British Museum Catalogue of the Parrots (Vol. XX.

p. 551, 1891). He remarked how truly intermediate it was

between Pennant’s Parrakeet ( P. elegans ) and the Rosella ( P .

eximius).


In my book on the Parrakeets I stated that I had little

doubt that it was a hybrid between these two species and wrote

“ it appears to be quite unknown in a wild state, and it seems to

me probable that the few specimens that have been seen—all, I

believe, in captivity—have been reared on the Continent from the

two most commonly imported species.”


In this journal for August, 1903, Mrs. Johnstone published

the following statement, which settled the question of this bird

Being a hybrid : “ Mr. Cocksedge, in his aviaries at Bey ton, bred

two fine Red-mantled Parrakeets from a cock Pennant and a hen

Red Rosella. These nested and hatched two young ones, but they

died when a few days old. I have had frequent nests of this cross

in my aviaries. This year two, but in only one case were the

eggs fertile, but the young birds (2) were killed by a weasel about

two weeks after they left the nest.”


The pair of these Parrakeets bred by Mr. Cocksedge were

exhibited by him at the Crystal Palace Show held in October,

1898, and attracted considerable attention on account of their

rarity.


Although this is undoubtedly a hybrid, it is interesting to

discover that it occasionally appears in a wild state in Australia.

A friend of mine in Sydney wrote to me last August to say that

he had secured a fine specimen of the Red-mantled Parrakeet

that was caught with two others on the Northern Rivers. The

two others had died, but this one he hoped to send home to me.

It has recently arrived and is now in my aviary—an undoubted

specimen of Salvadori’s Platycercus erythropeplus.


D. Seth-Smith.



