Part 8

On arriving at Brezi, to the north of Liverpool Plains, in the beginning of December, I found myself surrounded by numbers, breeding in all the hollow spouts of the large _Eucalypti_ bordering the Mokai; and on crossing the plains between that river and the Peel, in the direction of the Turi Mountain, I saw them in flocks of many hundreds feeding upon the grass-seeds that were there abundant. So numerous were they, that I determined to encamp on the spot, in order to observe their habits and procure specimens. The nature of their food and the excessive heat of these plains compel them frequently to seek the water; hence my camp, which was pitched near some small pools, was constantly surrounded by large numbers, arriving in flocks varying from twenty to a hundred or more. The hours at which they were most numerous were early in the morning, and some time before dusk in the evening. Before going down to drink, they alight on the neighbouring trees, settling together in clusters, sometimes on the dead branches, and at others on the drooping boughs of the _Eucalypti_. Their flight is remarkably straight and rapid, and is generally accompanied by a screeching noise. During the heat of the day, when sitting motionless among the leaves of the gum-trees, they so closely assimilate in colour, particularly on the breast, that they are with difficulty detected.

It is known that migratory birds after a time forsake the districts they have been accustomed to frequent, and resort to others where they had scarcely ever before been seen: in confirmation of this view, I may state that the natives had never before observed this species in the districts where I found it so abundant; while on the lower Namoi, where formerly they had been very numerous, there was this year scarcely one to be found.

The breeding-season is at its height in December, and by the end of the month the young are generally capable of providing for themselves; they then assemble in vast flights, preparatory to their great migratory movement. The eggs are three or four in number, pure white, nine lines long by seven lines in diameter, and are deposited in the holes and spouts of the gum-trees without any nest.

The beauty and interesting nature of this little bird naturally made me anxious to bring home living examples; I accordingly captured about twenty fully fledged birds, and kept them alive for some time; but the difficulties necessarily attendant upon travelling in a new country rendering it impracticable to afford them the attention they required, I regret to say the whole were lost. My brother-in-law, Mr. Charles Coxen, who resides on the Peel, having succeeded in rearing several, kindly presented me with four, two of which, as before mentioned, have reached England in perfect health. As cage-birds they are as interesting as can possibly be imagined; for, independently of their highly ornamental appearance, they differ from all the other members of their family that I am acquainted with, in having a most animated and pleasing song; besides which, they are constantly billing, cooing, and feeding each other, and assuming every possible variety of graceful position. Their inward warbling song, which cannot be described, is unceasingly poured forth from morn to night, and is even continued throughout the night if they are placed in a room with lights, and where an animated conversation is carried on.

In a state of nature they feed exclusively upon grass-seeds, with which their crops are always found crammed: in confinement they thrive equally well upon canary-seed.

The sexes are precisely alike in the colouring and marking of their plumage, and gain their full livery in about eight months, or at the second moult from the time of leaving the breeding-place.

The young are distinguished from the adults by the crown of the head, which is yellow in the adult, being crossed by numerous fine bars of brown, by the absence of the deep blue spots on the throat, and by the irides being brownish grey.

The adults have the forehead and crown straw yellow; the remainder of the head, ear-coverts, nape, upper part of the back, scapularies and wing-coverts pale greenish yellow, each feather having a crescent-shaped mark of blackish brown near the extremity, these marks being numerous and minute on the head and neck; wings brown; the outer webs of the feathers deep green, margined with greenish yellow; face and throat yellow, ornamented on each cheek with a patch of rich blue, below which are three circular drops or spots of bluish black; rump, upper tail-coverts, and all the under surface bright green; two centre tail-feathers blue; the remaining tail-feathers green, crossed in the middle by an oblique band of yellow; irides straw white; nostrils bright blue in some, greenish blue and brown in others; legs pale bluish lead colour.

The figures represent an old and a young bird of the natural size.

NYMPHICUS NOVÆ-HOLLANDIÆ, _Wagl._ Cockatoo Parrakeet.

_Psittacus Novæ-Hollandiæ_, Lath., Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 102.—Gmel. Linn., vol. i. p. 323.

_Crested Parrakeet_, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. i. p. 250.—Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 174, No. 88.—Shaw, Zool., vol. viii. p. 452.

_Palæornis Novæ-Hollandiæ_, Lear, Ill. Psitt. Pl. 27.

_Nymphicus Novæ-Hollandiæ_, Wagl., Mon. Psitt. in Abhand, &c., pp. 490 and 522.—Selb., Nat. Lib., vol. vi. Parrots, p. 186, Pl. 30.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 66.

_Leptolophus auricomis_, Swains. Zool. Ill. 2nd Ser. Pl. 112.—Ib. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 305.

_Calopsitta Guy_, Less., Ill. Zool. vol. iii. 2nd sp., Pl 112., female.

The interior portion of the vast continent of Australia may be said to possess a Fauna almost peculiar to itself, but of which our present knowledge is extremely limited. New forms therefore of great interest may be expected when the difficulties which the explorer has to encounter in his journey towards the centre shall be overcome. The beautiful and elegant bird forming the subject of the present Plate is one of its denizens; I have it is true seen it cross the great mountain ranges and breed on the flats between them and the sea; still this is an unusual occurrence, and the few there found compared to the thousands observed on the plains stretching from the interior side of the mountains, proves that they have as it were overstepped their natural boundary. Its range is extended over the whole of the southern portion of Australia, and being strictly a migratory bird, it makes a simultaneous movement southward to within one hundred miles of the coast in September, arriving in the York district near Swan River in Western Australia precisely at the same time that it appears on the Liverpool Plains in the eastern portion of the country. After breeding and rearing a numerous progeny, the whole again retire northwards in February and March, but to what degree of latitude towards the tropics they wend their way I have not been able satisfactorily to ascertain. I have never received it from Port Essington, or any other part in the same latitude, which, however, is no proof that it does not visit that part of the continent, since it is merely the country near the coast that has yet been traversed; in all probability it will be found at a little distance in the interior, wherever there are situations suitable to its habits, but doubtless at opposite periods to those in which it occurs in New South Wales. It would appear to be more numerous in the eastern division of Australia than in the western. During the summer of 1839 it was breeding in all the apple-tree (_Angophora_) flats on the Upper Hunter, as well as on all similar districts on the Peel, and other rivers which flow northwards. After the breeding-season is over it congregates in immense flocks before taking its departure. I have seen the ground quite covered by them while engaged in procuring food, and it was not an unusual circumstance to see hundreds together on the dead branches of the gum-trees in the neighbourhood of water, a plentiful supply of which would appear to be essential to its existence; hence we may reasonably suppose that the interior of the country is not so sterile and inhospitable as is ordinarily imagined, and that it yet may be made available for the uses of man. The Harlequin Bronzewing and the Warbling Grass Parrakeet are also denizens of that part of the country, and equally unable to exist without water.

The flight of the Cockatoo Parrakeet is even and easy, and is capable of being long protracted. When roused from the ground it flies up into the nearest tree, almost invariably selecting a dead branch, upon which it frequently perches lengthwise. It is by no means a shy bird, so that any number may be shot: from the circumstance of its being excellent eating many are annually killed for the purposes of the table. Its form admirably adapts it for terrestrial progression, hence it is enabled readily to procure the seeds of the various grasses, upon which it almost solely subsists.

As a cage-bird this species is particularly interesting, becoming readily domesticated, playful and amusing. The accompanying Plate is from a beautiful drawing made by Mr. Lear, from two living birds in the possession of the Countess of Mountcharles.

Considerable difference exists in the plumage of the sexes, the tail-feathers of the male being entirely destitute of the transverse bars which adorn those of the other sex.

It breeds in the holes of gum and other trees growing on the flats and in the neighbourhood of water. The eggs are white, five or six in number, one inch long by three quarters of an inch broad.

The male has the forehead, crest and cheeks lemon yellow; ear-coverts rich reddish orange; back of the neck, two centre tail-feathers, and the external margins of the primaries brownish grey; back, shoulders, all the under surface and outer tail-feathers greyish chocolate brown, the shoulders and flanks being the darkest; a white mark extends from the shoulders lengthwise down the centre of the wing; irides dark brown; bill bluish lead-colour, lighter on the under side of the lower mandible; legs and feet bluish grey.

The female differs from the male in the colour of the face and crest being of a dull olive yellow, the latter becoming still darker at its extremity; in having the throat greyish brown, and the back lighter than in the male; the lower part of the abdomen, upper tail-coverts, yellow; four middle tail-feathers grey, the remainder yellow, the whole transversely and irregularly barred with lines of brown, with the exception of the outer web of the outer feather on each side, which is pure yellow.

The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size.

PEZOPORUS FORMOSUS, _Ill._ Ground Parrakeet.

_Psittacus formosus_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 103.—Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in Nova Acta, vol. x. p. 45.

—— _terrestris_, Shaw, Mus. Lev., p. 217. pl. 53.—Ib. Zool. of New Holl., pl. 3.—Ib. Nat. Misc., pl. 228.

_Perruche ingambé_, Le Vaill. Hist. Nat. des Perr., tom. i. p. 66. pl. 32.

_Black-spotted Parrakeet of Van Diemen’s Land_, D’Entrecast. Voy., vol. ii. p. 47. pl. x.

_Ground Parrot_, Lath. Gen. Syn., Supp., vol. ii. p. 26.—Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 454. pl. 66.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 137.

_Pezoporus formosus_, Ill. Prod., p. 201.—Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 285.—Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., pp. 490 and 520.—Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 305.—G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 66.

—— _rufifrons_, Bourj. de St. Hil. Supp. to Le Vaill. Hist. Nat. des Perr., pl. 9.

_Bȍo-run-dȕr-dee_, Aborigines northward of Perth in Western Australia.

_Djȁr-doon-gȕr-ree_, Aborigines around Perth.

_Djul-bat-̏la_, Aborigines southward of Perth.

_Ky-lȍr-ing_, Aborigines of King George’s Sound.

_Goolingnang_, Aborigines near Sydney, New South Wales.

_Swamp Parrakeet_, Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.

_Ground Parrakeet_, Colonists of New South Wales and Western Australia.

The Ground Parrakeet is diffused over the whole of the southern portions of Australia, including Van Diemen’s Land, wherever localities exist suitable to its habits, and so far as I could learn, it is everywhere a stationary species. It has never been observed in the northern latitudes of the continent, but our knowledge of the productions of those parts of Australia is so very imperfect, that I cannot positively affirm that it does not exist there. Unlike some of the African members of its family, which are inelegant in form and slow and ungraceful in their actions, the _Pezoporus formosus_ is as active and graceful as can well be imagined; and although in its colouring it cannot vie with some of its more gaudily attired brethren, it possesses a style of plumage and diversity of markings far from unpleasing. Having very frequently encountered it in a state of nature, I am enabled to state that in its actions it differs from every other known species of its race, as it also does in its habits and economy, which I shall now attempt to describe. Whether the power of perching is entirely denied to it or not I am uncertain, but I never saw it fly into a tree, nor could I ever force it to take shelter on the branches. It usually frequents either sandy sterile districts covered with tufts of rank grass and herbage, or low swampy flats abounding with rushes and the other kinds of vegetation peculiar to such situations. It is generally observed either singly or in pairs, but from its very recluse habits and great powers of running it is seldom or ever seen until it is flushed, and then only for a short time, as it soon pitches again and runs off to a place of seclusion, often under the covert of the Grass-tree (_Xanthorrhœa_), which abounds in the districts it frequents. A striking analogy in the foregoing habits to those of the Gallinaceæ and some of the Grallatores,—Snipes, &c., is very apparent; and a still further analogy to those tribes of birds is exhibited in the manner of its crouching on the approach of danger and in the strong scent it emits, which has many times caused my dogs to road it, and point as dead as they would have done had game been before them; consequently, when shooting over swampy land in Australia, the sportsman is never certain whether a parrakeet or a snipe will rise to the point of his dog. It flies near the ground with great rapidity, frequently making several zigzag turns in the short distance of a hundred yards, beyond which it seldom passes without again pitching to the ground. Its flesh is excellent, being much more delicate in flavour than that of the snipe, and equalling, if not surpassing, that of the quail. Its white eggs, the number of which I could not ascertain, are deposited on the bare ground. I possess examples of the young of all ages, from the egg to maturity, some killed in Van Diemen’s Land, and others from various parts of Australia; I also procured both adults and young on Flinders’ Island, where I found them breeding on the grassy plains which cover the greater portion of that island. The young assume the colouring of the adult at a very early age, but the sexes offer no external difference by which they can be distinguished.

Plumage of the whole of the upper surface dark grass-green, each feather crossed by irregular bands of black and yellow; feathers of the crown and nape with a broad streak of black down the centre; forehead scarlet; neck and breast pale yellowish green, passing into bright greenish yellow on the abdomen and under tail-coverts, crossed by numerous irregular waved blackish bands; primaries and spurious wings green on their outer webs and dark brown on the inner, each of the latter with a triangular spot of pale yellow near the base; four centre tail-feathers green, crossed by numerous narrow bars of yellow; lateral tail-feathers yellow, crossed by numerous bars of deep green; irides black with a fine ring of light grey; feet and legs bluish flesh-colour.

The figures are of the natural size.

LATHAMUS DISCOLOR Swift Lorikeet.

_Red-shouldered Paroquet_, _Psittacus discolor_, Shaw, in White’s Voy., pl. in p. 263.

_Red-shouldered Parrakeet_, Phill. Bot. Bay, pl. in p. 269.—Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., ii. p. 90.

_Psittacus discolor_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxi.—Swains. Zool. Ill., 1st Ser., pl. 62.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 176.—Shaw’s Zool., vol. viii. p. 466.

_Psittacus humeralis_, Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in Nova Acta, vol. x. p. 47.

_Psittacus Australis_, Ibid. p. 48.—Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxv. p. 342.—Ibid. Ency. Méth., 3ième Part. p. 1384.

_Perruche Banks_, Le Vaill. Hist. des Perr., p. 104, pl. 50.

_Nanodes discolor_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 276.—Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 305.—Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Zool., vol. xiv. p. 118.

_Euphema discolor_, Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., vol. i. pp. 492 and 545.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, p. 52.

_Psittacus Banksianus_, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxv. p. 342.—Ibid. Ency. Méth., 3ième Part. p. 1383.

_Lathamus rubrifrons_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 205.

_La Perruche Latham_, Le Vaill. Hist. des Perr., p. 123, pl. 62, young.

_Psittacus discolor_, Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in Nova Acta, vol. x. p. 48, young.

_Swift Parrakeet_, Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.

No one of the Australian birds will be more deeply imprinted upon my memory than the Swift Lorikeet, associated as it is with many of the most pleasing recollections connected with my visit to that part of the world. The accompanying drawing was one of many made by Mrs. Gould in Van Diemen’s Land, during a long residence in the house of the Governor, Sir John Franklin, who, together with his amiable lady, took the greatest interest in our pursuits, and rendered us every possible assistance their kind hearts and excellent dispositions could suggest.

Much confusion has hitherto existed both as regards the generic appellation and the division of the _Psittacidæ_, to which this elegant Lorikeet should be referred; but as I have endeavoured to clear up these points in my observations upon the genus, it is needless to repeat them here. It is a migratory species, passing the summer and breeding-season only in the more southern parts of the Australian continent and Van Diemen’s Land, and retiring northward for the remainder of the year. During September and the four following months, it is not only abundant in all the gum-forests of Van Diemen’s Land, but is very common in the shrubberies and gardens at Hobart Town, small flights being constantly seen passing up and down the streets, and flying in various directions over the houses. They approach close to the windows, and are even frequently to be seen on the gum-trees bordering the streets, and within a few feet of the heads of the passing inhabitants, being so intent upon gathering the honey from the fresh-blown flowers which daily expand, as almost entirely to disregard the presence of the spectator. The tree to which they are so eagerly attracted, and a branch of which is figured in the accompanying Plate, is the _Eucalyptus gibbosus_, young or cultivated specimens of which appear to have finer blossoms than those in their native forests. It is certainly the finest of the genus I have ever seen, and when its pendent branches are covered with thick clusters of pale yellow blossoms, presents a most beautiful appearance; these blossoms are so charged with saccharine matter, that the birds soon fill themselves with honey, even to their very throats: several of those I shot, upon being held up by the feet, discharged from their mouths a stream of this liquid to the amount of a dessert-spoonful or more, as clear as water. Small flocks of from four to twenty in number are also frequently to be seen passing over the town, chasing each other with the quickness of thought, and uttering at the same time a shrill screaming noise, like the Swift of Europe, whence in all probability has arisen its colonial name. Sometimes these flights appear to be taken for the sake of exercise, or in the mere playfulness of disposition, while at others the birds are passing from one garden to another, or proceeding from the town to the forests at the foot of Mount Wellington, or _vice versâ_. Their plumage so closely assimilates in colour to the leaves of the trees they frequent, and they moreover creep so quietly yet actively from branch to branch, clinging in every possible position, that were it not for their movements and the trembling of the leaves, it would be difficult to perceive them without a minute examination of the tree upon which they have alighted. I found them breeding about midway between Hobart Town and Brown’s River, but was not fortunate enough to obtain their eggs, in consequence of the situations selected for their reception being holes in the loftiest and most inaccessible trees; they are said to be two in number, and the circumstance of my having found a fully-developed hardshelled egg in the ovarium of a female I dissected on the sixth of October, enables me to state that, like those of the other members of the family, they are perfectly white.

The only part of New South Wales in which I have observed them was on the fine estate of Yarrundi, in the district of the Upper Hunter, belonging to S. Coxen, Esq., who informed me that they periodically pass through his estate during the months of February and March.

In its actions and manners it is closely allied to the true _Trichoglossi_ but differs from them in some few particulars, which are more perceptible in captivity than in a state of nature; it has neither the musky smell nor the jumping motions of _Trichoglossus concinnus_, and is much more cleanly in its habits than that species.

Though in its style of colouring and in its more lengthened and slender tail it is beautifully intermediate between the Grass Parrakeets and the _Trichoglossi_, still I have never observed it to alight upon the ground, or elsewhere than among the branches, and it undoubtedly must be placed with the latter group.

The sexes are very similar in colour, but the female may always be distinguished from her mate by being much smaller in size and less brilliant in all her markings. The young at an early age assume the plumage of the adult, after which they undergo no change.

Face scarlet, with a spot of yellow at the gape; crown of the head deep blue; all the upper and under surface green, the latter being somewhat the lightest; shoulders, under wing- and under tail-coverts scarlet; secondaries and wing-coverts bluish green; primaries deep blackish blue, finely margined with yellow; tail deep blue, tinged with red, passing into black at the extremity; irides rich hazel-yellow; feet flesh-brown; bill horn-colour.

The figures are of the natural size.

TRICHOGLOSSUS SWAINSONII, _Jard. and Selb._ Swainson’s Lorikeet.

_Perruche de Moluques_, Buff. Pl. Enl. 743.

_Blue-bellied Parrakeet_, Brown, Ill. of Zool., pl. 7.

_Blue-bellied Parrot_, White’s Voy., pl. in p. 140.—Phill. Bot. Bay., pl. in p. 152.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 413. pl. 59.

_Le Perruche à tête bleue_, male, Le Vaill. Hist. des Perr., tom. i. pl. 24.