PLATE XXVII. 
PLAT YC E RCXJS PEXNAXTIL 
PENNANT'S PABBAKEET. Genus Platycercus. 
IT is almost impossible to find a bird more regally clad than this magnificently plumaged one, and when seen in 
its vivid living beauty, sharply silhouetted against the sombre green foliage of some shady spot, or glinting 
in the shaft of a stray sunbeam, it creates a sensation of satisfied pleasure not readily forgotten. In its 
crimson vest we see the Tyrean purple that was of old restricted to kingly usage ; and in the rich purple blue of 
the throat and wings the royal blue of the present day. 
The distribution of the Platycercus pennautii, familiarly known as the Red Lory, Blue Cheeked Lory, 
or Pennant's Parrakeet, is very general over New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, but it is not 
numerous anywhere. It is both arboral and terrestrial, and is usually found feeding in small flocks on berries, 
grass seeds, caterpillars, or insects of the coleopterous order. 
In common with other members of the genus, it runs very rapidly over the ground, and has a short 
swift flight, Avhen its long fan-shaped tail of pale blue shows to much advantage. 
Being of a gentle trusting disposition, it is easily tamed, and is, on that account, one of the most 
popular birds sent from Australia to England, either as a pet or as an ornament to an aviary. During the period 
of youth it is the custom for the birds to assemble together in large flocks, and make visits of depreciation to 
orchards and cultivated grounds, when 1 they, in turn, afford very good sport for the guns of irate owners, besides 
bein»' a dainty adjunct to the table at that stage. 
These birds are gregarious during winter and autumn, but separate into pairs during the breeding 
season, which extends from September to January. During this period two or three broods of from four to six 
young ones, are reared ; they all remain with the parents till the following spring, when they pair off to their 
own homes. In Xew South Wales these birds choose by preference the cedar brushes of Liverpool Range for 
purpose of nidification, or the coast side of the Australian Alps, where they find a hollow in a gum tree and 
deposit their eggs. In Victoria the peppermint and stringy-bark trees are preferred for nest building. The eggs 
are white, and measure about one inch two lines long by eleven lines and a-half broad. 
The sexes are alike Avhen full grown ; but during the embryonic age that precedes it there is much 
variation, enough, indeed, to have caused considerable confusion in the differentiation of this Parrot. During 
the first autumn the young birds are almost entirely green, when they are known as Green Lories ; to this 
succeeds a dress of mingled dull red, blue, and green, which is constantly changing in hue and disposition, till it 
is merged into the final coat of crimson and blue. 
The mature bird has head and under-surfaces of rich crimson ; cheeks and ear coverts, bright 
blue ; shoulders and small wing coverts are the same colour ; the primaries, black, edged outwardly with bluish 
grey ; back of the neck, secondaries, large wing coverts, black, broadly edged with scarlet; central tail feathers, 
dark green; lateral tail feathers, deep greyish blue, with outer webs of bluish-white; tail coverts, crimson; 
under tail feathers, pale blue ; irides, hazel brown, surrounded by a narrow bare line of grey, lightly dotted with 
black spots ; bill, bone colour at tip, deepening to horn at base ; feet and legs, dark slate grey. The Albino 
variety takes on a shabby yellowy green, flecked about the head, tail, and neck with red. 
Mr. E. L. Layard has j^'ocured specimens of Platycercus pewnantii at Norfolk Island, which are 
identical, in every particular, with the continental species, both in the plumage of the adult and the immature 
bird, though they are smaller in size. They are, therefore, recognised as belonging to the same genus, and are 
