PLATE XXXVII. 
PSEPHOTUS MULTICOLOR. (Gould.) 
MANY-COLOURED PABBAKEET. Genus: Psephotus. 
IT is scarcely possible to imagine a lovelier bird than tliis little parrakeet. The name " many-coloured " is 
strictly a correct definition of its plumage, but is also justice without mercy, for the impression conveyed to 
the mind might be of a conglomeration of colour the reverse of beautiful to the artistic sense. In reality, we 
have in this instance a practical demonstration of the law that " the highest art only can produce the highest 
art." Red, green, and blue do not afford much scope for harmonious blending in their crude bases ; but, toned 
and softened as they are in the bird before us, they become each the perfect complement of the other and 
convey to the eye a gratified sense of the beautiful in Nature. A. P. Forbes Leith, in his pamphlet on the 
"Birds of Victoria," indulges in unwonted rapture when speaking of Psephotus multicolor. "This charming bird 
must be seen in freedom before one can form any idea of its brilliant many-coloured plumage, its head and neck 
throwing off the rays of the emerald ; its breast the beautiful verdure of the young shoots of the Murray pine. 
Its wings exhibit the richest colours of the Trogon, the Regent Bird, and the Azure Kingfisher ; while the back 
seems as if the Prussian blue and gamboge of the wings had blended together and formed a green of the richest 
hue found in the natural order of the Coniferae." 
Gould classes the Psephotus multicolor as a true Psephotus ; but later naturalists, who haA^e had more 
extended means of observing it in the different colonies, both wild and captive, are inclined to doubt its right to 
the position, and say it would be more correctly included among the Lories. They base their argument upon the 
evidence that it seeks its food among trees and shrubs rather than on the ground. In Victoria, where its habits 
have been most closely watched, " it abounds in the forest belts bordering the Murray River, and in other parts 
of the colony where the scrub is thick, but does not, as a rule, appear far south." During the greater part of the 
year it feeds on the pollen and nectar of the eucalyptus and other flowering trees, but when they cease, recourse 
is made to soft berries. 
Nidification takes place during the months of September and October, when a set of from three to five 
eggs are deposited in a hollow tree, on the soft crumbled pith that lies at the bottom of the hollow. Two broods 
are raised during the breeding season. 
The egg is white and oval in shape, with the surface very slightly granulated. Length, eleven lines 
and a-quarter to eleven lines and three-quarters ; breadth, eight lines and a-quarter to nine lines. 
The Psephotus multicolor possesses a bright, lively, and at the same time gentle disposition, and is 
capable of very strong affection, as is shown by the attachment between the sexes, so that the attractiveness of 
its outward person is fully borne out by its natural disposition. The male has a soft musical voice, of which he 
makes much use, especially in the pairing season. 
The female is a very sober likeness of her brilliant mate : her forehead is yellow, but of a paler shade 
than in the male; the upper surfaces, dull olive brown; neck and breast, reddish grey; primaries, green, with 
black extremities ; the abdomen, yellowish green ; the under tail coverts, yellow ; the tail, greenish blue, but 
lighter than in the male, and her shoulder-patch, red instead of yellow, so that she is not much dissimilar from 
the female of Psephotus pulcherrimus, from which, however, she is easily distinguished by the greater size of 
her red shoulder-patch ; and from the young male of the latter species she will be known by her reddish brown 
breast and the deeper colour of her wings and tail. 
The adult male has upper surfaces, cheeks, throat, and breast of at least a dozen shades of green, 
varying from palest emerald to deepest grass green ; forehead, patch on shoulders, and wings, brilliant orange, 
deepening in some birds to reddish chestnut ; back of head, abdomen, and vent, scarlet, paling into yellow on the 
