THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
These are undoubtedly the “ type ” eggs as they had been described 
some six years before by North (Ibis, 1894, p. 260), and apparently they are 
unique. 
North, in the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., p. 165, 1911, records 
that none of his correspondents in Western Australia had been able to 
procure or even see this bird in that State in recent years. Mr. Robert 
Grant gave a note : “In November 1892 I flushed a beautiful male Neophema 
splendida out of some Polygonum, near Bourke, on the Darling River, 
Western New South Wales, and it flew into a low tree. This bird I shot, and 
afterwards carefully searched all around for the female but did not find it. 
This is the only instance I have ever seen this species alive in the bush.” 
There appears little else to record about this species save that it seems 
to be absolutely extinct both in the east and west. It was described 
from West Australia and I separated the eastern form subspecifically. 
While this may be maintained the same remarks apply as in the preceding 
case, no series being available, and little interest can be taken in the 
subspecific variation of these little birds. Judging from analogy, which is 
a dangerous thing to do, the subspecies would be better marked than the 
odd specimens show. 
It is worthy of note that this species seems to have had a western range 
denied to its congener. Both appear to be more complex evolutionary 
products than the preceding genus, and yet both appear to have died out 
before any of the four species of that genus, a rather extraordinary procedure. 
It is possible that this elimination is due to the progress of civilization, but 
it certainly cannot be put down to the scientific bird-collector. It may be 
that it was only able to survive before the complex changes wrought by 
cultivation, etc., were brought into being, and the species was not able to adapt 
itself quickly enough to these changes to benefit thereby. As we have no 
records of its habits we can only guess at any reason for its decrease. 
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