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Psittacus aurantius. 
Synonym: Euphema aurantia, Gld. 
T his diarming bird^ wbicb a recent writer considers to be a crea- 
tion of tbe late John Gould’s imagination, is, nevertheless, a very 
real Parrot, or rather Parrakeet, exceedingly abundant in Van Diemen s 
Land, and the islands in Bass’s Straits, during the summer months, 
and seldom to be met with on the Australian mainland except during 
the winter. 
Few importations of any consequence take place from the beautiful 
island, now called Tasmania, after its discoverer, who gave it the dis- 
carded appellation by which it was long and unfavourably known, in 
honour of the father of his betrothed wife, an appellation that fell into 
disrepute, owing to the island having been used for many years as a 
penal settlement, but which the inhabitants got rid of as soon as the 
government of the colony was placed in their own hands. 
Van Diemen’s Land, now, more euphoniously, Tasmania, is a lovely 
and fertile island, blessed with an almost perfect climate, but little 
known to the overcrowded populations of the mother country, with which 
it has fewer and less important relations than any of her colonies; to 
which fact it is no doubt owing that so few of the many charming 
and eminently hardy birds that abound in her forests, find their way 
into our aviaries, and are practically unknown, not only to dealers and 
importers of foreign birds, but even to many Lnglish and continental 
naturalists of repute. 
The subject of the present notice, the Gang-gang Cockatoo, or 
Parrot, {^Psittacus galeaius, but not the Psittacus galeatus of Russ,) 
and the Ground Parrot [Pezophorus formosus, Gld.,) for instance, are 
cases in point : the dealers know them not, and even, some of them, 
try to persnade an enquirer that they have no existence : but Tasmania 
