122 Edward Boosey—The Grass Parrakeets—Some Facts and Fictions


Various quite amazing statements have been made in some of the

old books, with regard to the general appearance of the various Grass

Parrakeets.


Dr. Greene, for example, in his Parrots in Captivity , remarks in the

course of an article on the Elegant Grass Parrakeet : “ Not only does

this bird resemble the Turquoisine in appearance and size, but in habits

and in the possession of a tolerably musical voice, especially in the

early days of his courtship, when he sings and dances before his mate

in a manner which to her, no doubt, is charming, but which to the

human beholder verges closely on the ridiculous ” ; and again, a little

further on : “ We are disposed to believe,” says Dr. Greene, “ that the

Elegant and Turquoisine belong to the same species, and that the main

point of difference between them—the absence of the red shoulder

spot in the former—is not sufficient to separate them. They are probably

no more than local varieties of one species to which this bird, the

Turquoisine, and most probably the Splendid, belong.”


Commenting on this, I may say that the Turquoisine and Elegant

are not the same size, the latter being considerably the larger bird of

the two ; and further, I am quite certain that no self-respecting cock

of either species would ever dream of singing and dancing before his

wife during the breeding season, or at any other time.


How on earth Dr. Greene could have supposed that the only

difference between them was the red shoulder patch, and have

thought them so ridiculously alike as to be scarcely worth treating as

separate birds, is quite beyond me, particularly as his own book is

illustrated with coloured plates which, though the birds depicted are

often a most peculiar shape, nevertheless do convey quite a fair idea

of the colour areas, the illustration of the Turquoisine being the best

in the book.


What always amazes me most is the convincing air of authenticity

with which Dr. Greene manages to endow even the most wildly

improbable of his statements, be it the imaginary love-dance of a

Turquoisine or his extraordinary conclusion that a Blue-banded Grass

Parrakeet (obviously the Blue-winged) is “ neither more nor less than

a Turquoisine in its brightest summer attire ”.


Why, too, did he omit entirely from his book this the Blue-winged,



