KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 52. N:o |7. 69 
Hecological. — At the end of March and the beginning of April I saw this 
parrot in flocks at Derby. In Dec. it was common up at Fitzroy river, Nooncanbah 
(WIDELL). It was not observed at Mowla Downs at the latter time. 'The birds seem 
to join into flocks of males (and flocks of females). 
Order Coraciiformes. 
: Fam. Podargidee. 
Podargus strigoides LATH. 
Math. handl. n:r 376. SJ ad. Mowla Downs, Kimb., ?/12 1910; SJ ad. St. Georges range, Fitzroy r. ?7/> 
1911, moault. 
The specimens are very probably the species strigoides. The length of the wing is 
the same in both, about 9 Engl. inches (phalcenoides has the wing about 8 inches 
long). The plumages are alike. Both are males with but little brown in the dress, 
only in the specimen no. 2 is this colour conspicuous on the upper small wing-coverts. 
Moulting. — Specimen no. 2 is in strong moulting. The secondaries are changed, 
in the tail there are feathers growing out, in the chin pins, ete. The back has old 
worn feathers. Specimen no. 1 is not in moulting, but apparently in full plumage. I 
shot this specimen in a nest with two eggs. 
The moulting Podargus have a characteristic way of fraying the old feathers. 
As in the females of the great-billed cockatoo (page 60) the colour of the top 
of the feather seems to have a very conspicuous effect. But the process that 
follows, is quite contrary to what happens in the great-billed cockatoo. In 
Podaigus the tips of the barbules are worn and broken (and in this respect 
Podargus is like many other birds) but the top of the feather and its central shaft 
remain and are not worn away, as is the case otherwise in the parrots (and in 
other birds too). The part, that remains isolated, is the black streak along the top 
of the feather. By these black tips Podargus gets streaked in such a way as to 
imitate the cracked bark of the trunk of the Fucalyptus. In the newly-obtained 
feather this shaft-streak is fully-developed but at first it does not reach beyond the 
edgings of the top. Later on the barbules beside it are worn away. The old 
feather, which is considerably paler than the new one, has the following appearance 
page 22 fig. 8; plate 2, fig. 13 a and 13 Db. 
This wearing process, which leaves the clack »pencil»> at the tip unaffected, 
keep the protective coloration. The pigmentation seems to compose the strengthening- 
element in that pencil. Instead of a real moulting of the edge we have here, as is 
seen, a wearing of the edges in the side-parts at the top of the feather. 
Ecological. — The l4th of Dec. (1910) I got the nest and eggs of this bird 
at Mowla Downs. It was found in an old dry Eucalyptus tree and was built in a 
