T. A. Forbes Leith gives his experience of tliem thus : " Is met with in many parts of Victoria, from 

 the Werribee to the Loddon, in the east and west of the colony. . . . The female is a dull brownish green on 

 the upper surfaces ; otherwise she is like the male, but less brilliant, resembling very much the Elegant Grass 

 Parakeet. . . . These Parakeets live much in the grass, often in pairs only together. I shot one on Keilor's 

 Plains some years ago, and I daresay they may be met with on any grass flats. In dry summers they make for 

 the neighbourhood of creeks, and I have seen them on the Werribee, and shot a female there once." 



The breeding season is at its height in October and November, when the eggs are usually deposited in 

 the holes of the eucalypts, but sometimes in the hollow trunks of fallen trees. In common with members of the 

 same genus, the male assists in the task of incubation. The eggs vary in number from three to five, and are round 

 and white. Length, ten lines ; breadth, eight lines and a-half. 



It is more than probable that members of the same flock vary considerably in the tone of their plumage, 

 as some writers speak of the Blue Banded Parrakeet as surpassing in loveliness the Turquoisine or Euphema 

 pulchella. The accompanying plate is painted from a specimen in the Sydney Museum, by which it will be seen 

 that there is no comparison between it and its splendid congener. 



Forehead, band of indigo blue, outlined by faint line of light metallic blue ; head, neck, back, upper tail 

 coverts, throat, chest, and flanks, olivaceous green, with yellow tinge round the eye ; breast, lighter shade, slightly 

 tinged with blue, and fading into sickly yellow on the vent and under-tail covets ; shoulders, lazuline blue, 

 deepening into ultramarine on the primaries and secondaries, which are tipped with black ; four middle tail 

 feathers, greenish blue ; the basal portion of the remainder, beautiful blue on their outer edges, and largely 

 tipped with fine yellow ; irides, bill, and tarsi, brown. 



Total length, about seven inches and three-quarters. 



Habitats : New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania. 



EUPHEMA BOURKII. {Gould.) 



BOUBKE'S PABRAKEET. Genus: Euphema. 



IN this charming little bird we welcome a delightful change in the colour of the plumage from all existing 

 Euphemcc and Bseplioti ; the eternal green vesture (of which Forbes Leith writes : " Strange to 

 say, notwithstanding the number of green Parrakeets to be found in different parts of the world, I never 

 saw two species with the upper surfaces having the same shade of green ; this is one of those exquisitely 

 beautiful arrangements in nature where, when necessary, the colours of the fauna will blend or contrast with 

 the flora of the earth.") is exchanged for one of warm porphyry on the under surfaces, and carries with it a 

 sense of relief that not the most exquisite shades of green could pale. 



Apart from its appearance, Bourke's Parrakeet (called by Gould after Governor Bourke, who held the 

 reins of vice-royalty at the time when Major Sir T. L. Mitchell discovered the first specimen on the banks of the 

 Bogan during one of his expeditions into the interior of New South Wales), is closely allied in all its habits to 

 the rest of its congeners, except that it is not migratory. 



In the crescentic form of the markings on the back, there is to be traced an approach to the style of 

 colouring observable in the Melopsittacus undulatus. 



Though distributed over the three best known colonies, our knowledge of this dainty little bird is 

 restricted from the fact that it is nowhere common. It thrives in captivity, and through this source we obtain the 

 little information we have of it. A certain Mr. Groom, of Camden Town, London, once possessed a pair, and 



