MATHEWS— Note on Platycercus. 1& 



mained all the summer and up to the following spring with 

 the parent birds, but when the nesting season approached they 

 were missed. More than likely the parent birds drove them 

 off prior to their preparing for nesting themselves. 



Note on Platycercus (haematogaster), Gould. 



By Gregory M. Mathews, F.R.S.E. 



The recent acquisition of the second part of "'The Birds of 

 Australia and the Adjacent Islands" drew my attention to the 

 inaccurate determination of Platycerus haematogaster (Gould). 

 On the seventh plate this species is figured and there des- 

 cribed. The bird has no red on the wing coverts and has the- 

 under tail coverts yellow. In the letterpress Gould states 

 that he had only seen three specimens, two being collected 

 by Major Mitchell on the Darling River. These he diagnosed, 

 as males, and his own bird, on account of its duller coloration, 

 he considered a female. He states also 'that Major Mitchell 

 has presented his specimens to the Linnean Society of London 

 and the British Museum. He also mentions that Major 

 Mitchell has given birds to the Australian Museum at Sydney, 

 New South Wales. These, of course, Gould had not seen, 

 and are only referred to as confirmatory evidence. In 

 Mitchell's "Three Expeditions into the Interior of Australia,. 

 Vol. J., P. 23(V we find the following account: — "June 20th, 

 1835. On the low hills which we crossed a new species of 

 parrot was shot, having scarlet feathers on the breast, the 

 head and wings being tinged with a beautiful blue, the back, 

 &c, being of a dark brownish green. A footnote reads:— 

 'This bird has since been named by Mr. Gould Platycercus 

 haematogaster.' r At this date Mitchell was at a place about 

 31.18 S. by 144.15 E. 



Through the negligence of this figure and description it i^. 

 obvious that name has been misapplied. 



In the Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1837, P. 89, Gould des- 

 cribed Platycercus haematogaster, and there included some re- 

 marks which seem applicable to the bird commonly called 

 P. haematogaster, but he noted -'lateribus tectricibus inferioribua 



pallide flams." When Stone drew up his "List of 



Australian Birds," described by John Gould &c. (Austral.. 



