100 SPLENDID PABRAKEET. 



The Splendid Parrakeet, although not to say uncommon in its native 

 land, is very rarely imported into ours, which is the more to be re- 

 gretted that it is a grass-seed eater, and not more difficult to preserve 

 in captivity than the Turquoisine and the Elegant. 



Seen running nimbly over the ground, among the long grass, the 

 Splendid Parrakeet might, by its green back, blue face, and wings 

 edged with blue, be taken for a Turquoisine; but when, alarmed by 

 the approach of an intruder upon its ancestral domain, it rises with a 

 "whirr" that somewhat reminds the beholder of a Partridge, and flies 

 to the nearest she-oak, banksia, or mimosa, the deep red neck and 

 breast reveal the fact that it is another and quite different bird. 



It is rather smaller than the Turquoisine, and of equally slim and 

 graceful build. The nest is made in a hollow bough, where the female 

 lays three or four eggs on the soft wood, hatching them in about 

 eighteen days; and there are usually two broods in the season. 



The movements of this bird are in a great measure regulated by 

 the supply of food; thus in one district where the crop of grass has 

 been good, the Grass Parrakeet s, with the Splendid at their head, 

 abound; although in the next, where either a "Squatter's" flocks, or 

 the presence of an unusual number of the indigenous mammals, or 

 perhaps of the prolific rodent so recently imported from the mother 

 country, and which in the land of its adoption has displayed a fecundity 

 so marvellous that it actually threatens to drive not only the native 

 animals, but man himself from the scene, where, in such a case, the. 

 grass has been either totally consumed, or at least prevented seeding, 

 these birds are of rare occurrence; while if a bush-fire has recently 

 desolated the land, they are not to be seen at all. 



When the breeding season is over they all retire to the far interior, 

 to reappear on and near the southern coasts, as the season of love 

 and marriage invites them to the fulfilment of the all-important duties 

 of reproduction; which, accomplished, they retire once more to their 

 favourite fastnesses, and it is on these journeys that the trapper could 

 make of them an easy prey. 



It is much to be desired that dealers would endeavour to procure 

 some of the rarer members of the family, instead of confining their 

 attention to the importation of the few species they usually keep in 

 stock, and which are as familiar to amateurs as the Linnet and the 

 Pobin : we might then hope to become more intimately acquainted with 

 the subject of the present notice, and others of its beautiful congeners, 

 now quite unknown to the great majority of the English bird-loving 

 public. 



It is difficult to understand the apathy of traders in this respect, 



