THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Lake Alexandrina ; and in confirmation of this opinion I may state that I 
found it abundant in the Great Murray scrub of South Australia. It is 
generally met with in small companies of from five to ten in number, some- 
times on the ground among the tall grasses, at others among the high trees, 
particularly the Eucalypti. The sexes differ but little in colour ; the males, 
are, however, at all times the largest and finest in plumage.” 
It still appears to be numerous in the Mallee of Victoria and South 
Australia, the Broken River District of New South Wales, the Cloncurry 
District in Mid-Queensland and apparently in the Flinders Range of South 
Australia. 
Under the name Barnardius barnardi, Mr. Edwin Ashby wrote me : 
“ I have collected this bird near Mannum on the Murray, where in common 
with other parrots it is very fond of feeding on the berries of African Box 
Thorn ; at Saddleworth, seventy miles north of Adelaide, at Nackara on 
the Broken Hill line about twenty miles east of Petersburgh. The birds 
were very tame ; as many as five brightly coloured birds drinking out of a tank 
of water only a few yards away from the writer at or rather near Broken Hill, 
while I have received several specimens from Leigh’s Creek, 373 miles north 
of Adelaide. There is a great variation in the skins ; while most of the skins 
north of Adelaide are more dingy and darker on the crown than the more 
southern specimens, yet one I collected at Broken Hill has very bright green 
on the crown and dark nape and deep orange on the abdomen, but these 
features occur in some of the others. I conclude that while the Flinders Range 
and northern forms may have a tendency to be darker than the southern ones 
there is no fixed type in any one district and therefore none of the variations 
deserve subspecific rank.” 
Captain S. A. White has written : “ Barnardius b. barnardi. The bird 
found upon the lower reaches of the Murray River in South Australia I feel 
sure belongs to the typical subspecies. They are numerous in the Mallee 
scrubs all along the river where they breed ; they feed upon the seeds of 
grasses, gum-seeds, berries, &c. ; they have a quaint way of sitting on a 
branch and chattering loudly, swaying their outstretched tail rapidly from 
side to side. 
Mr. F. E. Howe’s notes read : “ This species was a very common one 
at Pine Plains, Victoria, where we found them nesting in every available 
hollow, but at Kow Plains, forty -five miles to the east, it was a fairly rare 
form, only one pair being noted. This last pair was nesting in the hollow 
of a mallee bush ( Eucalyptus dumosa) about 10 feet high. The nest contained 
five eggs, well incubated. The call note and flight of this bird are not unlike 
that of Platycercus eximius 
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