192 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
New South Wales, and therefore would not be likely 
to confuse it with any other species, assures me that 
one summer in recent years he met with a flock near 
Gheringhap on the Ballarat Road. 
GROUND PARROT 
Pezoporus terrestris terrestris 
The banks of Airey's Creek in its lower reaches, where 
the fresh water is already mingling with the salt, are 
clothed, in parts, with extensive clumps of bracken 
{Pteris aquilina) and tussock-grass. From one of these, 
directly across the creek from Mr. Berthon's Wyba- 
lenna homestead, flew one evening in the summer of 
1892-3, the only Ground Parrot which I have ever had 
the good fortune to see in the Geelong district, and 
I am afraid I must add that the species is probably 
now extinct in this locality. 
Its mode of life is entirely terrestrial, and it has 
the habit of hiding in the grass or running along the 
ground which makes it difficult to flush a second 
time — a peculiarity which places it as much at the 
mercy of the fox as does the fact that it lays its 
eggs on the bare ground without protection. 
The plumage is dark green ; feathers of lower breast, 
abdomen, and tail barred with yellow and black, black 
streaks on back of head, touch of orange on forehead. 
About the whole colouring is something suggestive of 
a Quail or Game-bird rather than of a Parrot. 
