The young of all three varieties — Blue-Bellied, Orange-Breasted, and Elegant — are very much alike, 

 though the first is the smallest of them, however, they moult between six and seven months old, and adopt the 

 plumage of their different parents according to sex distinctions. Length of adult bird, eight inches and a-half. 



A band of deep indigo blue, tipped with light metallic blue, forms the forehead ; the same brilliant 

 metallic blue on the shoulders is brought into close juxtaposition with an intense sapphire blue, deepening to 

 indigo, and colouring the primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries ; the head and ujjper surfaces, olive green ; tail coverts, 

 golden olive green ; throat and chest, geenish yellow, passing into bright yellow on the abdomen and under tail 

 coverts ; the two centre tail feathers, vivid metallic blue ; the remainder blue at the base and largely tipped 

 with yellow ; irides, very dark brown ; bill, dark brown, lighter on the under side ; legs and feet, dull brown. 



Habitats : Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence River District (New South Wales), Interior, 

 Victoria and South Australia, Western and South-Western Australia. (Ramsay.) 



EIPHEMA SPLENDIDA. {Gould.) 



SPLENDID PARRAKEET. Genus: Euphema. 



WITHOUT doubt if the bird nomenclature could be revised, and names bestowed according to the merits of 

 one bird in comparison with another of the same species, we should not find the eternal fitness of things 

 so often disturbed in this department by hasty conclusions ; even allowing the truth of the proverb 

 "every eye makes its own beauty," it is hard to divine why this particular grass Parrakeet should be designated 

 by so fine a word as splendida, when most of its congeners can lay claim to greater beauty. The only reason 

 to be assigned is that nauralists became acquainted with the birds of a genus by chance, frequently in an 

 inverted order, and for want of more knowledge bestowed upon them names quite out of proportion to their 

 comparative merit. 



The Splendid Parrakeet resembles Euphema pulchella in the colouring of its upper surfaces, and might 

 be mistaken for one as it runs lightly through the tall coarse grasses. But when alarmed, it rises with a 

 "whirr" that reminds one of the Partridge, and flies to the nearest casuarina, banksia, or mimosa, revealing as 

 it goes the brilliant red breast that is so distinctive a mark. 



The first specimen procured by Gould was sent him in 1840, from the Swan River ; a second came 

 from Moore's River ; and Captain Sturt obtained one during one of his journeys into the interior of South 

 Australia ; others again were killed in the Murray scrub near the north-west bend of that river. Scattered 

 testimony such as this proves that the original habitats of Euphema splendida were South and Western Australia, 

 the vast sparsely timbered plains of the latter colony affording secure asylum for a number of beautiful 

 Parrakeets (many of which are extremely local in their distribution, owing to the instability of the seasons), whose 

 natural food is the seed of the kangaroo grass (Anthisteria avenacea). (Gould). 



The movements of this bird are regulated principally by the supply of food ; if the grass happens to be 

 good in one district the grass Parrakeets, with the Splendid at their head, abound; but should this fail in another 

 from natural causes or fire, the birds will occur rarely or not at all, having been forced by stress of circumstances 

 to seek food elsewhere. It extends its range as far as New South Wales, but is never plentiful. 



In point of size the Splendid Parrakeet is rather smaller than the Turquoisine, but is equally slim and 

 graceful. In disposition and hardiness it is much the same. Total length, eight inches. 



The female is smaller and paler ; the wing coverts both above and beneath are a pale lazuline blue, and 

 the breast green instead of red. 



