KING PARROT 
183 
against the background of green gums and under- 
growth on the farther side. They breed in that 
forest. There is a man who, at least until recently, 
made his living by trapping them in February and 
March when the young are well grown ; his cart, 
with all its cages, was quite a sight in Geelong streets 
about Easter time. 
I have seen odd birds about Geelong. One gentle- 
man of my acquaintance, who had purchased a young 
bird, tells me that he caught two others by uninten- 
tionally using it as a decoy. These may, of course, 
have been escapees. The male is interesting in a 
cage solely on account of its glorious colouring. 
Song it has none, and it is a poor pupil. 
Up till about 1893 King Parrots, generally in 
immature plumage of all green, used to visit Airey's 
Inlet in the winter time, drawn by that instinct 
in forest-breeding species to wander eastward in 
the wet season, to which I have referred elsewhere. 
Lately I have not heard of them there : forest fires, 
scrub-clearing, and trapping have had their natural 
result. Well, you cannot eat your cake and have it ; 
closer settlement and the King Parrot are mutually 
exclusive, as the logicians say ; but would it do any 
one any serious harm if now, while yet there is time, 
the Government set apart say ten miles square of 
the most mountainous part of the Otway as a sanctuary 
and breeding-ground for this and other lovely species 
of native birds which otherwise are doomed to 
perish utterly ? 
