THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
the size of the Guinea Parrakeet. Total length, ten inches and a half ; the 
general colour of the plumage is green, inclining to yellow on the under-parts ; 
the top of the head, the outer edge of the wing and some parts of the middle of 
the same are deep blue ; all round the base of the bill crimson, with a mixture of 
the same on the fore part of the neck, but between the bill and eye is a mixture 
of yellow : the shoulders and under-parts of the wings are blood red : two 
or three of the inner quills, and the vent pale red ; the greater quills dusky, 
fringed outwardly with yellow ; the tail is greatly wedged in shape, the 
feathers at the base chestnut, towards the end dull blue ; the bill and legs are 
brown. 
“This species inhabits New South Wales, and we believe it to be hitherto 
non-descript .” 
Simultaneously, but published the succeeding year, White, in the Journal 
Voyage New South Wales , also gave a plate opposite p. 263 and also selected 
the same vernacular name, but added a Latin diagnosis and gave a Latin name, 
Psittacus discolor, which name it now bears. It also appears among the paintings 
made by Watling, so that apparently it was not uncommon about Sydney 
at the time of settlement. I have indicated the confusion in connection with 
the generic names applied to this interesting species, but it is noteworthy that 
no fewer than six specific names were later bestowed on this bird. The first, 
hitherto unrecorded, is Psittacus sanguinolentus, given by Kerr in his Animal 
Kingdom, in 1792, p. 585, to the “ Redshouldered Parrakeet, Phill. Bot. Bay, 
t. 269.” Then Bechstein, in 1811, named two plates given by Levaillant, 
not recognising they referred to the same bird : Psittacus lathami (pi. 26) 
and P. humeralis (pi. 50). The former name I have shown to be anticipated 
by Temminck for a different species. Vieillot added another name for the 
second plate (50), proposing P. banksianus. Kuhl used Brown’s MS. name 
P. australis for a specimen in the Museum Linnean Society, not recognising 
the identity of the bird, while Lesson added Lathamus rubrifrons simply as a 
new name when proposing the new generic term. 
Gould’s notes are fuller than those of any succeeding writer : “ This 
elegant Lorikeet is a migratory species, passing the summer and breeding- 
season only in the more southern parts of the Australian continent and Tasmania 
and retiring northwards for the remainder of the year. During September 
and the four following months it is not only abundant in all the gum forests 
of Tasmania, but is very common in the shrubberies and gardens at Hobart 
Town. It is frequently to be seen on the gum trees bordering the streets, 
within a few feet of the heads of the passing inhabitants, and so intent upon 
gathering the honey from the fresh-blown flowers which daily expand as almost 
entirely to disregard their presence. The tree to which it is so eagerly 
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