BUDGEBIGAB. 
117 
and others of a faint yellowish green, with scarcely a trace of the 
characteristic undulations: while a blue Tariety is stated to have been 
produced in Belgium, where the yellow birds originated a few years 
back: to us these '^sports” are far less beautiful than the little, sprightly 
green-coated Budgerigar, now so familiar to aviaristsj that they are 
more delicate than the original bird, we are certain, and it is probable 
that without much care, and judicious crossing, these accidental variations 
will die out, which, after all, would perhaps bo no misfortune : though 
doubtless others will arise, and in time there will bo Budgerigars, as 
there now are Canaries, of all colours, with scarce a trace of their 
origin discernible about them. 
In Jardine^s Naturalist’s Library, Selby writes of the Budgerigar, 
which he named “Undulated Nanodes^’’ {Nanodes undulatus, Vig. et 
Horsf.), as follows: — “This little species, which scarcely exceeds seven 
inches in length, approaches still closer than its congeners in colour 
and appearance to the Ground Parrot, and brings the genus Pezoporus, 
Illg., into immediate connexion with that to which it belongs.’'’ 
It might be thought that the force of imagination could scarcely 
further go, but it does, considerably further; for M. E. Leroy is re- 
minded by it of the Swallow! 
“Par sa structure” , writes that author, “pw)' ses formes ^ancees, par 
la petitesse de ses jambes, la longueur do ses ailes et do sa epueue; en un 
mot, pa/r son greement et sa voilure, si je puis 7n’ exprimer anisi, la 
perruche oudulee se rapproclie heaucoup de I’ hh-ondelle, si ce n’ est cjue, 
dans le vol, les plumes caudahs, au lieu d’ affecter la forme fourcliue, se 
deploient en eventail, les plus longues au milieu, absolument comme celles 
du faisan.” 
The Budgerigar like a Swallow! we are tempted to exclaim with 
Hamlet, “Like a Whale!” 
Nor is Selby much happier in his resemblance of the Undulated one 
to the Ground Parrot: both are Parrots, it is true, and both are green, 
with dark undulated markings on a portion of the plumage, but there 
the resemblance ceases. 
Dr. Buss has written a book about the Budgerigar, and the subject 
is far from being exhausted: but the doctor is not exact when he says 
of it : Yerbreitung fast ganz Australien” , for it is strictly confined to 
that portion of the island comprised within the limits of the colony 
of South Australia, and in point of fact is as rare in New South Wales 
and Victoria, as it is in England, or rarer. 
It is a bird of passage, migrating south to breed; “ Zugvogel” , as 
Dr. Russ remarks, and returning northwards when its one or two broods 
of young have been reared, to feed on the grass seeds that have been 
