THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Temminck. Adventure Bay is in Bruni Island, and sliould the mainland bird 
hereafter prove separable, no series from Bruni Island being available, broumii 
would come into use. 
In selecting a specimen to figure, I noticed that there was a difference 
between the King Island and mainland birds and therefore characterised the 
former under the name Platycercus caleclonicus kenriettce subsp. n. “ Differs 
from P. c. caleclonicus in having more red on the head and in having the under 
tail-coverts red.” It will be seen above that A. G. Campbell recorded other 
differences as well, size and darker upper coloration, as Keartland also noted 
and pointed out by A. J. Campbell previously. Again examining the material 
available I see that the birds from Flinders Island (and probably the Kent 
group too) are the darkest of all, at the same time they are smaller than those 
from the mainland, not larger as are the King Island ones. I propose there- 
fore for this subspecies which has the tail-coverts green, the name of 
Platycercus caledonicus flindersi subsp. n. 
We see, that, the variation in these island forms is in a peculiar manner, 
though agreeing with the general rule that island forms tend to become darker 
and vary in size, sometimes noticeably increasing, in others decreasing. It is 
interesting that here we see the darkest form decreasing, while the bird that 
has developed in size has shown more of the erythristic tendency. When we 
find that the birds on the continent have developed in quite the opposite 
manner, becoming more yellow, though not varying much in size, we wonder 
how the developments are affected by the environment, especially as we have 
the marked erythrism so peculiar to the best known species more fully developed 
in almost the same environments. 
It must be noted that Salvadori gave the “ Hab. ” as Tasmania and 
Victoria and catalogued a specimen as from Queensland. Ramsay in the 
Cat. Austr. Psittcici gave “ Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia (?).” I have 
never seen a specimen from the mainland, nor do I trace any authentic 
occurrence of this species on the continent and therefore restrict the range to 
Tasmania and the islands of Bass’s Straits, at which result I find North has 
also arrived. 
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