BLUE-CHEEKED PARROT. 
appear to have been brought back by Captain Cook and obtained near 
Cooktown.” 
At the same time I admitted four subspecies as follows : 
Platycercus adscitus adscitus (Latham). 
Queensland (Cooktown to Mackay). 
Platycercus adscitus palliceps Lear. 
New South Wales. 
Platycercus adscitus amathusice Bonaparte. 
North Queensland (Cape York). 
Platycercus adscitus elseyi n. sub-sp. 
“ Differs from P. a. amathusice in its paler rump : Gulf of Carpentaria. 
Interior of Queensland.” 
The latter form had already been noted by Salvador! in the Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus., Vol. XX., p. 549 as follows : “ Specimens from Gilbert River, 
collected by J. R. Elsey, are to a certain extent intermediate between P. 
pallidiceps and tj^pical P. amathusia, having the blue cheeks like the latter, and 
the rump and upper tail-coverts pale bluish green, scarcely yellowish, like 
the former.” 
Salvadori cites the Gilbert River, as North-west Australia, whereas it is 
in Queensland, running into the Gulf of Carpentaria. The four forms above 
noted were maintained in my List of the Birds of Australia as they are 
recognisable and are also here accepted. 
This is noteworthy, as although individual variation is so great the 
features which are of subspecific value are not much concerned in the variation. 
Salvadori wrote : “ There is a good deal of individual variation in this species ; 
some specimens have the cheeks entirely white, with no blue border below ; 
others have scattered red feathers, especially on the head, and the upper 
breast tinged with yellow. I suspect that all this arises from hybridisation or\ 
atavism, if we admit this species was derived from one having a red head.” 
Personally I do not think we can derive the present species from a red- 
headed ancestor, but that it varied from the original green basic form and 
did not develop the erythristic red-head, but instead the xanthochroistic 
element predominated at first and then a cyanism, always evident in the 
erythristic phases, takes the place of the erythrism. The xanthochroistic 
element now seems to be suppressing the cyanistic one and the majority of 
birds show more yellow in the adult than in the immature. That it is not 
yet a fixed form is seen by the extraordinary individual variation as well as 
the marked subspecies of such restricted range. 
The immature specimens available appear to have passed the green 
phase altogether and show a peculiar plumage quite unlike the young of its 
343 
