THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Hall, writing on the Birds of Eyre Peninsula {Emu, Vol. IX., p. 131, 1910), 
wrote : “ On a small, flat, treeless islet, made of dune limestone and covered 
with Mesembryanthemum, Brassica, etc., the bird was nesting in numbers. 
Among the rocks on the flat, and in the face of the very low cliff, there were 
a dozen nests. We examined a few : a, two young in grey down ; b, one fresh 
egg ; c, five young in pale grey down ; d, ditto ; e, three eggs well incubated. 
The nests were from three inches to three feet within the piles of stone or in 
the cliff facing the bay (further remarks see p. 133). Loc. Kellidie Bay.” 
Then followed a long account : “ Notes on the Rock-Parrakeet, by Charles 
Barrett, with a plate showing the nest and nesting -place of the species.” 
Barrett wrote : “It was during the camp out of the A.O.U. on Eyre Peninsula 
in October last. A small party . . . drove to Lake Wangary on the west coast. 
On one occasion we were taken to Kellidie Bay, a lovely little inlet of the 
sea, tranquil as a lake when we saw it. Driving along the rough road which 
girdles the Bay, we flushed from the long grass beyond the wheel-tracks 
flocks of the beautiful Neophema petrophila. Hundreds of the graceful 
little birds rose, almost from beneath the horses’ hoofs, and flew a few yards 
to settle on the branches of the nearest eucalypt or she-oak. They were easy 
to approach, and one of our gunners soon obtained a brace for purposes 
of identification — for on the wing the birds closely resembled N. elegans. On 
reaching the homestead, the owner, Mr. Mortlock, informed us that there 
were many birds breeding on an islet about a quarter of a mile from the 
shore near the outlet to the sea. Boats were kindly placed at our disposal. 
As the boats drew near Goat Island, a gun was fired by some too eager hand, 
and immediately the air was filled with winged forms. From behind the 
green curtains of Mesembryanthemum which draped the rock-ledges from 
water-line to summit of the island, Rock Parrakeets flew, screaming, out of 
the darkness of their nesting holes into the sunlight, which made their 
golden-green plumage shimmer like satin. The flat summit is strewn with 
limestone boulders. Several cairns were, for some purpose, long ago built 
of those stones, but they are now tumbled down, and the Parrakeets nest 
in the interstices. At every step, almost, we flushed a bird, and by pulling 
away the stones found its nest. Along the cliff face the nests were difficult 
to locate, and still harder to reach, for several which I examined were placed 
at the end of burrows from three to four feet in length. On the summit, 
however, the eggs often lay under a flat stone, raised a few inches from the 
ground by fragments of rock. One nest, just above the water’s edge, and 
containing five young, was between two vertical rocks, a situation in which 
the eggs of the Oyster catcher are often found.” 
Captain S. A. White wrote {Emu, Vol. XVI., p. 13, 1916) : “ Seen in 
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