Page:The Emu volume 21.djvu/271

 occupy only very small areas, as a rule, he is always close at hand. More than once he betrayed the nest through remaining in a tree near at hand. In flying towards, and away from, the nest, both birds utter a soft flute-like "cloote, cloote." This note is modified at times into a sound, impossible to write down on paper. When perched side by side, on the limb of a tree, the usual parrot-like chattering cries are indulged in, and the male at intervals feeds the female with the half-digested food from his crop.

In the breeding season the greater part of the food is procured in the dongas, but the first birds I met with were nipping off pink blooms from a small flowering shrub, the half developed seed vessel being eaten, and the petals falling to the ground. An introduced species of blue Crane's Bill was very plentiful in the dongas, and the crops of birds examined were crammed with the seeds, in a green state. Occasionally pairs may be met with under large bushes, where green herbage is growing, but this is rather exceptional.

The Naretha Parrot appears to be a gregarious species, and even during the breeding season, half a dozen or more birds may be seen feeding together. The largest party I saw was a flock of over thirty. These, when carefully scrutinised with the aid of a field-glass, appeared to be all in the plumage peculiar to a bird a year old. This plumage is much duller than that of a fully-fledged nestling, and the upper parts have rather a streaky grey appearance. The nestling, on the other hand, resembles more the adult. Even the row of spots, on the under side of the flight feathers, which denote immaturity in Parrots, is only slightly developed. The color of the bill, however, is very distinct. Instead of the bluish-white of the adult, it is of a conspicuous light brown. As the nestling gets older this gradually fades to a greenish yellow, and from that to the same as in the adult.

On the eastern goldfields September is the usual breeding month for parrots; and it was a great surprise to me to find young in a nest a fortnight after my arrival at Naretha. On August 24th I was examining a group of casuarinas adjacent to a donga, where Naretha Parrots were feeding. I noticed the edges of a hole in the trunk of a casuarina appeared to be polished by the entry and egress of some living creature. I procured a slender stick, and gently probed the hole. The result was an angry screech, followed by a full "bag-pipe" chorus. A female was inside brooding a family of young. Further search in a neighboring patch of casuarinas revealed a second nest hole, where a similar state of things prevailed. The nest hole in the first instance was very small, and about five feet from the ground, the nest chamber being nearly two feet below the entrance. In the second case the nest hole was about two feet from the foot of the tree, and subsequent examination proved that the eggs had been actually laid on the earth inside