THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
hundred miles further south. He was desirous of exploring Hie district 
indicated in these accounts and Dr. Macgillivxay acceded to his request, 
though probably not anticipating the result. McLennan immediately for- 
warded two strange Parrots which were living there apparently commonly. 
These were referable to the genera Eclectics olim ( = Lorius) and Geoffroyus. 
Neither of these occur at Cape York or the shores just opposite, nor does 
anything like them persist in the Bellenden Ker Range. We have thus a 
second isolated point- in North Queensland, and moreover one quite distinct 
from the first discovered, the Bellenden Ker Range. As these forms are not 
specialised like those of the last mentioned Range this must have been in 
touch with New Guinea since the isolation of the Bellenden Ker Range. It 
is possible that other strange avian forms will reward the worker at this point 
as Dr. W. Macgillivrav, who visited the place, concludes it will take a generation 
of field naturalists to exhaust its treasures and then speaks of a large Black 
Parrot which he did not procure. The extraordinary addition of two such 
notable birds from such a locality suggests that the other constituents of the 
fauna may include peculiar forms of recent New Guinea origin. I use the 
word recent in a technical sense as these two Parrots are peculiarly generalised : 
that is throughout their somewhat extensive range there is little variation 
to be observed. Though highly coloured the Lorius differs scarcely a shade 
while the Geoffroyus is also separable with difficulty as regards coloration. In 
the former case we, however, note a great increase in size, but in the latter 
this matter is not evident. 
The present form is very like the Aru Island bird, but the coloration of 
the under wing-coverts differs. This form I subordinate to the first described 
as only subspecifically separable, though some workers have maintained 
it as specifically distinct on account of the more marked difference in the 
colour of the heads of the females. 
Levaillant in his “ Natural History of the Parrakeets,” published at the 
beginning of the last century, figured a bird from “ Nouvelle Hollande.” 
This was named in Latin as Psittacus personatus by Shaw and simultaneously 
Psittacus geofjroyi by Bechstein. It was soon noted that it was not an 
Australian bird and that the locality given was erroneous. It was afterwards 
determined as a species from Timor and this has been generally recognised. 
However, Shaw’s species name was constantly employed without investigation, 
and it was not until I received the Australian birds from Macgillivxay that 
the status of the species name was inquired into. I at once found 
Bechstein’ s name was published in 1811 and though the volume of the “ General 
Zoology,” in which Shaw’s name appeared had a first title page 1811, the 
Part II. which contained the name Psittacus personatus had a separate title 
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