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Review of 
mound of about 3 feet in height ; the inside being con¬ 
structed of alternate layers of dried leaves, grasses, Sec . 
among which the eggs are deposited to the number of 
twelve and upwards, and covered up by the birds as laid. 
The bird never sits upon the eggs ; but when she has laid 
her number, the whole are covered up, after which the 
mound resembles an ant's nest. The eggs arc hatched 
by the heat of the sun’s rays, the vegetable lining of the 
hillock containing sufficient warmth during the night : 
the eggs are deposited in layers, no tw r o eggs being 
suffered to lie without a division. 
Plates 7, 8, 9, and 10, give us four exquisite illustra¬ 
tions of that family in which we have always taken much 
interest; we mean the Psittacidce . The first is that of 
our own beautiful swift parrakeet, so abundant in the 
summer months, very properly, as we think, separated 
by Gould from the genus Nanodes , or, more correctly, 
Euphema , consisting of five or six well-marked indi¬ 
viduals : the present is not a ground parrakeet, but one of 
the honey-suckers, and approaching in habits, though not 
in form, to the Trichoglossi . The botanist will take equal 
delight with the ornithologist in this plate ; for the blue 
>WuJu.s/ gum ( E . r jrhhiixin ? ) is here figured from a beautiful 
specimen. Gould says, that after the first month this 
bird undergoes no change: but we possess some aged 
individuals which are much duller than the females in 
plumage. The next plate is equally good, and the species 
of gum figured would be an acquisition to our Arboretum ; 
but we must pass on to Plate 9, when we have another 
of our Tasmanian parrakects belonging to the genus 
Euphema mentioned above ; the birds constituting which 
are miniature Platycerci , or broad-tails, the most beauti¬ 
ful group, taking it in its largest sense, that is, embracing 
Polytelis , in the whole family. The E. chrysostoma 
used to frequent in great numbers the plain immediately 
