Sydney Porter—Notes on the Cyanorhamphus ParraJceets 277



birds do, at being caged. I have noticed that this species has a habit of

resting at night in an upright position, holding on to the wires of its

cage by both bill and feet.”



The Macquarie Island Parrakeet (Cyanorhamphus n. erythrotis)


Macquarie Island will no doubt be better known to readers as the

original “ Penguin Island ”. It is one of those tiny islands which lie far

off the coast of New Zealand and well on the way to the Antarctic.

It was until recently the scene of the most terrible and disgusting

slaughter of the Penguins, when every year tens of thousands of these

hapless birds were driven into great vats or digesters to be boiled down

alive for the sake of a cheap commercial oil used mainly for the greasing

of ropes, as it was a trifle less in cost than mineral oil. On this island

lived a small Parrakeet of the Cyanorhamphus group, a bird like the

Antipodes Island Parrakeet, which was particularly terrestrial in its

habits, more from force of circumstances than anything else, as there

are no trees on the island, it being too bleak and wind-swept.


This Parrakeet, like the last, derived its sustenance from the seeds

of the tussock grass and also nested under the clumps of the same grass.

A scientific expedition which called at this island within recent years

failed to find the bird at all. One of the party who had explored

the island told me that though they examined every part of it they

failed to find the bird, so had reluctantly to come to the conclusion

that it was extinct.


Some time afterwards I met one of the professional Penguin killers

from Macquarie Island, and he told me that the Parrakeet had

disappeared prior to his advent there some years before the War. There

is little doubt that this bird was exterminated through the agency

of cats, which were brought by the Penguin killers in the very early

days and which were left to fend for themselves when the men left in

the winter. These animals have greatly increased and still take a great

toll of the bird life. The Macquarie Island Parrakeet is similar to the

Red-fronted Parrakeet, but is of a more yellowish green, especially on

the under parts, and there is very little blue on the wings.



