THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
North over one hundred years afterward. Temminck also acknowledged 
his indebtedness to Robert Brown in connection with the Tasmanian Parrot, 
which he called P. fiavigasler , while he called the present species P. brownii 
after Robert Brown. It is in connection with these species that so much 
confusion occurred apparently through misconception of each other’s notes. 
Vigors and Horsfield insinuate that Kuhl was to blame in anticipating 
Temminck, but surely the specialist had the better claim. That there was 
no unfriendliness between the workers is obvious from the fact that Kuhl 
records more than one new species as of “ Temminck and Kuhl.” 
In the present cases we have : 
Psittacus venustus “ Brown ” Kuhl = P. brownii Temminck. 
„ brownii Kuhl = P. flavigaster Temminck. 
„ chrysostomus Kuhl = P. venustus Temminck. 
Salvadori wrongly accepted the Temminckian names though they were 
not published until 1821, while Kuhl’s names were published in 1820. He 
apparently credited Temminck with the names as of 1819, but even this 
would not be reasonable, as Kuhl’s much more comprehensive work must 
have been prepared earlier for the press. As we are not concerned with such 
matters but simply with the dates of publication, Kuhl’s names are unquestion- 
ably the valid names to be used. There is not much life history known as 
the range of the species is restricted and not easily accessible. 
Gould’s notes read : “ This is a very abundant species on the northern 
and north-western coast of Australia, where it inhabits grassy meadow-like 
land and the edges of swamps, and mostly feeds upon the seeds of grasses 
and other plants, sometimes it is seen in pairs, but more frequently in 
families of from ten to twenty in number. It frequently utters a rapid 
succession of double notes resembling ‘ trin-se trin-se.' > Its flight is low, 
somewhat rapid and zig-zag, seldom farther prolonged than from tree to tree. 
Specimens of this bird, given me by my friends, Sir George Grey and Mr. Bynoe, 
from the north-west coast, differ somewhat in plumage from those killed on 
Cobourg Peninsula ; the concentric bands on the breast are much finer, the 
extreme margins only of the feathers being black ; I have one specimen also 
with the whole of the crown of the head a deep blood-red, and others with 
more or less of this colour. That this kind of plumage is unusual is proved 
by the fact of numerous specimens from Port Essington not exhibiting it, 
and had I not seen others from the north-west with black crowns (with the 
exception of the band across the forehead), I should have regarded as specific 
what I now look upon as a mere local variety, or possibly a very old bird.” 
In the Handbook Gould observed : “ Hitherto this bird has been known 
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