MANY-COLOURED PARROT. 
Mr. A. W. Milligan, writing of the birds of the Wongan Hills, West 
Australia [Emu, Vol. III., p. 225, 1904), observed : “ When returning one 
afternoon to camp I flushed a pair of Parrots from the base of a small bush, 
just on the verge of the lake country. Following them to the trees in which 
they alighted I shot one, which turned out to be a non-breeding male of 
Psephotus multicolor , remarkable inasmuch as his bill was pale pink, and that 
the cere at the base of the upper mandible was quite flexible and soft to the 
touch. The humeral feathers were very red, and the partially concealed trans- 
verse black band on the under surface of tail feathers was very clearly defined. 
In another instance I saw the parent birds and their young flying about.” 
Mr. F. L. Whitlock {Emu, Vol. IX., p. 192, 1910) wrote : “ Locally 
‘ Mulga Parrot.’ This was the most generally distributed of the Parrot family 
around Wiluna (East Murchison, West Australia). I met with it almost every- 
where, the exception being amongst the lagoons and sand-hills of Lake Violet. 
It was breeding commonly at Milly Pool, and I found several nests with young, 
being too late for eggs. All were in hollow limbs of eucalypts.” 
Gould did not meet with this species himself and observed that he had no 
information from the “ travellers who have visited its habitat.” 
The species was first described by Kuhl in 1820, who used the name 
Psittacus multicolor of Brown’s Manuscript, though noting it was not P. multicolor 
of Gmelin. The habitat was given as “ In Nova Hollandia,” the specimen in 
the Mus. Soc. Linn. Lond. This obviously invalid name was continued in 
use until 1910, when Clark, in the American journal. The Auk, proposed 
as a substitute Psephotus varius. Ignorant of this, I simultaneously made the 
correction, but my name, Psephotus dulciei, was not published until 1911. Both 
of these names were absolutely based on P. multicolor Kuhl. It is important 
to note this as the sequel shows. 
Examining my series in the preparation of my “ Reference List,” it was 
obvious that subspecies were separable. Guided by Gould’s statement as to 
its known distribution in his time, I arbitrarily selected New South Wales as the 
type-locality of the species. I then arranged the sub-species thus : 
Psephotus varius varius Clark. Queensland, New South Wales, 
Victoria. 
Psephotus varius rosince. 
“ Differs from P. v. varius in having much less red on the abdomen and deeper 
green on the upper breast.” Yorke’s Peninsula. South Australia. 
Psephotus varius exsul. 
“ Differs from P. v. varius in its bluer coloration above and below, especially 
noticeable on the cheeks, which are blue, not green. Mt. Magnet, West 
Australia.” 
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