CRIMSON-BELLIED PARROT. 
and it is only very recently that I have come to regard it so, as three years ago 
it was very seldom seen, but last and this year it is certainly becoming common. 
It is generally a very shy bird and goes about in small companies and is recognised 
by its note, which is reed-like and sounds like : ‘ Pe-Pe-Pe.’ They seem to be 
chiefly seed-eating birds. They are provided for by the ant in an unconscious 
way. Small ants gather trefoil and other grass seeds in heaps in the autumn, 
and I have often watched these parrots making a meal off one of these small 
mounds.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has written me: “I met with the species at Nackara, 
South Australia, in May, 1900, and was informed that they nested in that district, 
but I believe that is the only time this species has come under my notice in the 
field.” 
Dr. W. Macgiflivray wrote in the Emu , Vol. X., 1910, p. 95 : 44 We tramped 
on to strike the Yalcowinna road (West New South Wales) by a circuitous route 
through box flats and mulga scrub. A nest containing young Blue Bonnets 
in a hollow black oak interested us, as these birds showed a near approach to 
the more eastern Psephotus hcematorrhous , in having red under tail-coverts, 
and the dark red wing patch which, more than anything else, distinguishes 
P. hcematorrhous from P. xanthorrhous. Some of these nestlings, however, 
were much more marked than others. On account of the favourable season, 
and a plentiful and varied supply of seeds, we found both P. xanthorrhous 
and the Many-coloured Parrakeet nesting more freely than on two previous 
visits.” 
Captain S. A. White {Emu, Vol. XII., p. 124, 1912), writing about the 
attempt to go from Port Augusta to the Gawler Range : 44 We found the 
Crimson-bellied Parrakeet ( Psephotus hcematorrhous ) plentiful in the clumps of 
low timber during the heat of the day (and it can be hot in this country). They 
were amid the thick foliage of the myall trees, where they often perch motion- 
less, without uttering a sound, for hours, coming out to feed in the late 
afternoon and in the early morning, when they made up for lost time.” 
In the next volume Capt. White used (p. 24, 1913) the name Psephotus 
pallescens , writing : 44 Although we met with this species in numbers round 
Port Augusta the year before, we saw only an odd pair or two during this trip. 
Found one nest, with four young slightly covered in dusky brown ; nest was 
made in the hollow hole of a sandalwood tree nearly on the level of the ground, 
although the entrance was about twelve feet up.” 
In the South Australian Ornithologist , Vol. I., April 1914, p. 15, I gave 
an account of the confusion around the species name and forms. As further 
research enables the rectification of a few details, I here rewrite the facts anew 
and do not simply quote that article. In his folio edition, Gould figured a bird 
VOL. VI. 
413 
