36 EDWARDS* .Votes oil the Ground Parrot. [ ist July 1 
(the “Old Bushman”) writing in the fifties of last century of 
the fauna of Victoria, says that he occasionally saw the Ground- 
Parrot perch on tea tree scrub, and that he found the bird, at 
times about swamps in which, in places, the water was knee-deep. 
The country in which Wheelwright made his observations lay 
at the furthest not more than forty miles from Melbourne. He 
also noted that pointers and other sporting dogs would set the 
Ground-Parrot. The crops of birds incidentally shot on the 
south coast of New South Wales contained seeds chiefly. 
This Parrot was also found, at the period first mentioned, on 
the rich Tarraganda flats, quite close to the town of Bega, but 
during a long experience I have never met with or even heard 
of it on the much colder Monaro highlands immediately above 
the far south coastal districts. So far as the coastal districts 
mentioned are concerned the Ground-Parrot has long been but 
a memory of the past. To its practical — probably entire — ex¬ 
tinction three causes contributed: — 
First, the increase in numbers of the perfectly useless and 
terribly destructive European fox, introduced to this district, 
and probably spreading also into it from others about the late 
eighties of last century. This cunning animal must have played 
havoc with the eggs and nestlings of the Ground-Parrot, and no 
doubt also often stalked and seized adult birds as well. 
Secondly, the advent and quick increase in numbers of rabbits, 
which penetrated over the Australian Alps to the Monaro dis¬ 
trict, and from it soon spread to the coastal districts below. 
Poisoned wheat and other grains were at first used as baits 
for the destruction of the rabbit, and the Ground-Parrot, being 
mainly a seed eater, suffered greatly, in common with many 
other birds. 
Thirdly, radical alterations in and destructiton of its natural 
environment, many swamps being drained and the tussocks and 
other coarse grasses eaten off close in consequence of heavier 
stocking, while other changes in the country, also destructive 
of the Ground-Parrot’s natural sanctuaries, followed on the heels 
of closer settlement and the subdivision into smaller areas of 
the best agricultural and pasture lands. These three causes — 
but especially the two first, finally rang the death knell of the 
Ground-Parrot so far as the quarters under consideration are 
concerned. 
But what to the writer seems strange (seeing that the Ground- 
Parrot survived it, though it may in part account for the fact 
that the bird has never at any time been numerous) is the cir¬ 
cumstance that the grassy gullies and swamps in which it was 
most at home were always haunted in number by native cats 
( Dasyurus ). These actively predaceous little animals, keen of 
scent, continually scoured the gullies and swamps, often in se¬ 
cluded places, by day, in quest of food, of which terrestrial 
birds, their nestlings and eggs, formed no inconsiderable part. 
