174



Walter Goodfellow—The Royal Parrot Finch



New Guinea, but as we bad first to go to Australia in either case, we

decided to leave it open until we got to Sydney and saw how the

boats fitted in. When we found there was one leaving for the New

Hebrides in five days we made up our minds to risk it, as it was by no

means certain if regias would be in sufficient numbers to pay expenses,

and I am afraid they were not.


Vila, the only port in the islands, is some ten days from Sydney,

and from there on it is difficult to get to some of the islands, and always

with great delay, so if we made a wrong choice much time would be

lost and great expense incurred. This is one of the drawbacks in going

to the more out of the way small islands, some of which are so unhealthy,

and the chance of getting any accommodation at all uncertain, as

camping out during six months of the year is quite out of the question

owing to the possibility of hurricanes which periodically devastate the

islands. Two such occurred last year on the island where we collected,

and one last January while we were there, of which more later.


Several species of Parrot Pinches inhabit the New Hebrides.

I doubt if there is one island without any. Close around the little

settlement of Port Vila we saw small flocks of the Blue Paced E. trichroa

every day feeding on the grass seeds in the coco-nut plantations ; and

on some of the islands farther north (Ambrym for one) the Blue

Collared E. serena and the Blue Faced are both to be found. The

former of these, also a beautiful bird, was first discovered as far back

as 1860 when MacGillivray procured one on the island of Aneyteum

right down south. This distribution is rather curious as typical regias

also inhabit an island in the Banks Group in the extreme north, while

the intervening islands have other subspecies. We thought it best to

go to the type locality and get true regias, which after all is the most

beautiful of all the Parrot Pinches either from the New Hebrides or

elsewhere. When in full plumage I think there is no doubt that it is

the most beautiful finch known. Gouldians look pale and washed out

in comparison with the striking contrast of the scarlet, blue, and green

of the regias, and I may as well say here that it seems to be as Lardy

as any finch known. Out of all ours we only lost three. One of these

we had to destroy because of a deformed leg, and the other two escaped

in Tahiti on our way home when the cages were being cleaned out



