THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
but Salvadori admitted it as a distinct species, though most of his localised 
specimens of eximius were from Tasmania. 
Gould recorded : “ Specimens from Tasmania are rather larger in size, 
and have the markings of the upper surface of a greener yellow, and altogether 
less brilliant than those from New South Wales.” 
Campbell noted : “ The Rosella Parrakeet is an abundant species through- 
out South-eastern Austraha, including Tasmania, where it is a larger bird : 
the white patches on the cheeks are also conspicuously larger than those on the 
mainland bird.” 
North in the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III. p. 128, 1911, wrote : 
“I have previously pointed out ( Town and Country Journal, Sydney, 11th 
April, 1896), that specimens from the latter island (Tasmania), may be dis- 
tinguished by the conspicuously larger white cheek patch, and may now add 
also by the richer and darker scarlet head and breast, the latter of which 
extends lower down the body than it does in birds from the mainland. Should 
it be necessary to distinguish this southern race, I would propose for it the 
name of Platycercus diemenensis .” 
Mr. T. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales : “ Very 
numerous here at all times of the year, but like many other species in this 
district, they are very much duller in colour than those seen in Victoria, or 
even in other parts of New South Wales ; never have I seen a Rosella here 
of the brilliant plumage so common elsewhere. They are the most destructive 
bird we have here in a fruit garden ; it is not so much a matter of what they 
eat, as the amount of fruit they destroy ; this is more especially the case with 
peaches, pears and quinces. Great numbers of them nest here, but the contents 
of many nesting hollows are destroyed by Lace Lizards ( Varanus varius) not 
only of Rosellas, but many other species : the vast number of eggs and young 
birds devoured by these repulsive reptiles each year must be enormous.” 
Mr. E. J. Christian from Victoria has noted : “ This is not a district in 
which many species of parrots make their homes : this is the commonest and 
can be seen everywhere in the timber and open plains. It is chiefly a seed- 
eating bird living on grass seeds and any grain. In summer it does great 
damage to apples and pears, but the good it does in eating the thistle seed 
far outweighs the harm it does in the orchard. Their flight is generally low 
with a dipping tendency and so low that I have known them killed by a top 
wire of a fence. The note is a screechy one, but when one bird, generally 
a male I find, is in a tree by himself he makes a note repeated about five times 
in succession and is answered by others in other trees. They are fond of eating 
the dried berries of the Pepper tree : these berries when drying have a red 
shell round them and this shell has a sweetened taste, which the birds come 
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