264 
THE WAKBLING GRASS PARRAKEET. 
we ai'e told, the Maoris lick their lips when any one speaks in their 
hearing of a dish of kakapos ! 
Returning to Australia, we find there an interesting member of 
the parrakeet family — the warbling gi-ass parrakeet, or, to adopt the 
rolling syllables of scientific nomenclature, the Melopsittacus un- 
dulatus — which, in beauty of plumage, has some claim to rank even 
with a bird of paradise. We feel it dLfficult to give any accurate idea 
of colouring in words. After we have told the reader that the 
dominant colour is green, of a pale hue about the head and neck and 
back and upper wing-coverts, edged and spotted with black, of a 
deeper tint on the chest and belly, — that the sides of the head are 
ornamented with four gem-like spots of a rich blue, — that the wings 
are brown, and the tail-feathers beautifully varied with blue, green, 
and yellow, we have left our task incomplete. We have not shown 
him the delicacy with which hue shades ofi" into hue, or the soft har- 
monies that everywhere prevail, or the gloss that rests upon the whole ; 
and, in fact, to realize all these in their actual beauty and grace and 
richness, he would need to see the fairy-like creation with his own 
eyes ! Nothing is more disappointing than a laboured description of a 
bird's plumage. The most glowing terms and the most eulogistic collo- 
cation of adjectives come nowhere near the reality, as the reader may 
determine for himself by comparing a bird of paradise (let us say) 
with a naturalist's account of it ! 
Our knowledge of the melopsitta is due chiefly to the researches of 
Mr. Gould. In traversing the vast plains of the Australian interior, he 
found himself literally sun'ounded by birds of this species, and re- 
solved to remain a while in the same place in order to make himself 
acquainted with their manners and habits. They appeared in bands 
of eighty to a hundred individuals, in the vicinity of a small pond, 
where they quenched their thirst. At regular hours they flew towards 
the gi'eat open bush, to seek the grain on which they feed. At an 
early hour every morning they resorted to the pool to drink, and again 
in the evening, before the veil of night fell upon the earth. In the 
hot hours of the day they remained immovable among the leafy tops 
