ROSELLA. 
larger in size. If a snbspeeific name were not granted, to the Victorian form, 
it might be referred to as — 
Platycercus eximius eximius — diemenensis. 
A nomenclatural system I do not recommend. 
As recorded by Ashby, the Victorian form ranges into the sonth-east 
of South Australia. 
A. G. Campbell {Emu, Vol. V., p. 145, 1906) recorded this species from 
Kangaroo Island, but Morgan (p. 224) threw doubt upon the record, as no 
specimen was obtained. 
The subspecies and ranges then appear to be : the brightest coloured 
subspecies restricted to North-east New South Wales, and the adjoining 
portion of Queensland : the typical form through New South Wales and 
probably North Victoria : a greener form in South Victoria and south-east 
South Australia and the greenest and largest form in Tasmania. The form 
is peculiarly stable when contrasted with other species of the genus, the 
parallel form elegans, also quite stable, having a coincident range but more 
extensive, running into North Queensland to the north, into the Flinders 
Range on the west and into Kangaroo Island in the south-west. The form 
elegans is the most strongly developed erythristic phase, and the present 
species seems to have devolved independently in or about the same regions 
by means of an equal operation of the xanthochroistic and erythristic elements, 
while the cyanistic element was being more suppressed. The latter is seen 
in the white cheeks as all the other species of the genus, save the Western 
Australian one, have blue cheeks. Though this form is the most stable of 
all, it hybridises with other species, and aberrations have been recorded, both 
xanthochroistic and erythristic specimens occurring, the latter more commonly 
than the former. From H. L. White’s observations that the xanthochroistic 
subspecies, cecilce ( = splendidus Gould) has apparently extended its range 
much to the south since the time of Gould, less than one hundred years, it 
may be suggested that the coloration of the species is still developing and 
that this xanthochroistic tendency will still further encroach, and the species 
will assume a brighter colouring still. It will be seen that field naturalists 
have recorded that this species is a bird of the sunlight, while its congener 
P. elegans is a bird of the forest. Moreover, it is increasing through the 
destruction of the heavy bush, and consequently the more sunlight it gets 
the brighter its coloration will become. We have here a delightful study of 
sunlight effects. 
I have just noted that Zuchold recorded Platycercus splendidus from the 
Lynd River, North Queensland, as long ago as 1858. I have no records 
VOL. VI. 
361 
