BLACK-TAILED PARROT OR ROCK PEBBLER. 
Captain S. A. White notes : “ Twenty years ago this bird was very 
numerous on the Murray River in South Australia, but is not nearly so much 
so now and without doubt, like many more of our native birds, is decreasing 
in numbers far too rapidly. They nest in the big gum trees along the river 
and go out back some distance for their food. They fly very rapidly and 
when on the wing give a short rather pleasing note. I have never met with 
these birds anywhere excepting on the Murray River between Mannam and 
Wentworth.” 
Mr. Sandiland states : “ Occurred in great numbers during Dec., 1907, 
Jan. and Feb., 1908, the only time I have ever seen it at Balah, South Australia.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has written : “ The Rock Pebbler parrot is to be seen 
fairly common along the River Murray in South Australia, where they frequent 
the large red gum country along the river flats and here breed in the hollow 
bowls of the eucalypts, laying 4 or 5 round white eggs on the decayed wood. 
They fly with a swift straight course ; keeping above the trees as they sweep 
along with their long pointed rakish looking wings, they can cover long distances. 
Their note is a soft succession of warbling sounds while perched, but on the 
wing and when flying swiftly they utter a loud high-pitched note which can be 
heard at some distance.” 
From the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., I quote a note by Mr. 
K. H. Bennett of Yandembah Station, Mossgiel, New South Wales : 64 1 have 
only on one occasion seen Polytelis melanura in a state of nature. When 
camped on the banks of a large lagoon, near the confluence of the Lachlan and 
Murrumbidgee Rivers, New South Wales, my attention was attracted one 
excessively hot morning, just at sunrise, by the peculiar and to me unknown 
notes of some bird. On looking round, I observed a flock of about twenty 
Polytelis melanura in the act of alighting on the dead branches of a tree that 
had fallen into the lagoon, with the evident intention of obtaining a drink, 
of which they appeared much in need. I was just in time to see the direction 
from which these birds had come, which was from the north, and at that 
time there was no water for over one hundred miles in that direction.” 
The same remarks apply to this as to the preceding as to habits and 
subspecies, but the more extended range gives this species a longer life. Never- 
theless it is imperative that field work should be undertaken at once and not 
delayed, as the Australian Parrots have shown signs of extinction in a verj r 
rapid manner. 
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