

Order PSITTACIFOEMES.] 



[Family PSITTACIDiE. 



CYANOEHAMPHUS NOT JEZEAL ANUI^E. 



(EED-FEONTED PAKBAKEET.) 



Platycercus novae-zealandiae (Sparrm.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. i., p. 137. 



This is one of the most variable of our species. No less than seven varieties, from different 

 islands, have been described and named by naturalists as distinct species. That from the 

 Auckland Islands is distinguished by its diminutive size, being scarcely larger than my 

 Platycercus rowleyi, from the South Island. Curiously enough, the form which comes from 

 Antipodes Island is even larger than ordinary-sized examples of this species in New Zealand. 

 It differs, too, from the latter in the general hue of the plumage, which has a larger 

 admixture of yellow, and in having the frontal spot, which is deep-crimson in the New 

 Zealand bird, much reduced in extent, and more or less varied with yellow. It is very 

 singular, also, that this species should be found inhabiting a small area like Antipodes 

 Island, which forms the restricted habitat of the perfetly distinct Cyanorhampkus unicolor. 



To the many recorded varieties of this species I have now to add another in a remark- 

 able specimen received by me from Nelson. The plumage of the upper surface is intermixed 

 with bright canary-yellow, this colour predominating on the wing-coverts, back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts. The outer tail-coverts are varied with yellow, and there are scattered 

 feathers of the same colour on the cheeks, throat, and fore-neck. 



Another, which I have had an opportunity of examining, differs from ordinary specimens 

 in having the first bastard quill in the right wing yellowish-white, with a blue-black tip, 

 and the corresponding feather in the left wing entirely yellowish- white ; it likewise has the 

 innermost secondary lemon-yellow, with touches of the same colour among the wing-coverts, 



secondaries and of the medial tail-feathers washed with metallic verditer-green ; the green is very bright on the 

 rump, and some of the upper tail-coverts have a sub-terminal bar of arterial red ; the inner under wing-coverts 

 are similarly marked, the outer ones changing insensibly from verditer-green to rich metallic blue; under surface 

 of quills and tail-feathers black. The feathers of the breast, sides of the body, and flanks have their basal 

 portion bright verditer-green, presenting a very rich appearance when the plumage is disturbed. Irides golden- 

 yellow ; bill bluish-grey in its basal portion, then black ; feet blackish-grey with a shiny surface ; claws black. 



The other bird I succeeded in bringing to England with me, and it lived in the Zoological Gardens for about 

 a year, and then died without any apparent cause. 



I take the following note from my diary : Suva, Wednesday, June 28th. Spent a very pleasant day with 

 Sir Henry Berkeley at Tamuvea. He has a house charmingly situated on the summit of a hill, with extensive 

 and beautiful views of the heavily wooded volcanic island and its endless miles of surrounding coral reefs. His 

 Honour informs me that the island is about 100 miles long by about the same extent across. On this side it 

 is wooded; on the other side of the mountain-backbone, the whole character of the country changes. It is open 

 and grassy. Cattle do well there, but sheep deteriorate and their fleeces get hairy. 



At Sir Henry's I saw a beautiful Fijian Parrot, Pyrrhulopsis tabuensis. It is of a brighter red than the one 

 I possess, with a broader band of blue on the nape. On the door of its cage being opened it darted out and 

 made in a direct line for the top of a wild acacia at the further end of the garden, spreading its beautiful 

 blue tail to the full extent as it disappeared amongst the thick foliage. Half an hour later it had returned un- 

 perceived to the drawing-room, where we found it busily engaged tearing to pieces a bouquet of tropical flowers. 

 I offered it my hand, and it immediately perched upon it and allowed itself to be caressed and showed every 

 willingness to re-enter its cage. Such a Parrot is, to my mind, an ideal pet. My bird, which is the rare dark 

 form from the Island of Gau, has several times escaped from the aviary, but has always come back to it. 



