THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
It may as well be emphasised that we have here only one species with four 
geographical forms, and that the two first separated as species are the most ill 
defined. This has been accepted by the workers who admitted the two species, 
Salvadori and North both indicating the unstable nature of the so-called species. 
The birds from further north have more red, the shoulders and vent being 
constantly this colour : those from further south as constantly lack the red on 
those parts, while it is also lacking in the most western birds ; but the central 
birds, where the variation is very clearly seen, were the most accessible and 
commonly the specimens showed their intermediate character. As North says, 
the extremes are very different, but they cannot on that account be regarded 
as species. It is an interesting species, as it shows the increase in the red 
colouring from south to north and in the next genus we have the peculiar 
dominance of red in the same district ; the southernmost form, if there ever 
was one, is extinct, but a more northern one still has the yellow in place of 
red, but has in some places replaced it with black, following the colour phases 
of Platycercus. 
