Page:The Emu volume 3.djvu/269

 Parrots from the base of a small bush, just on the verge of the lake country. Following them to the tree in which they alighted I shot one, which turned out to be a non-breeding male of Psephotus multicolor, remarkable inasmuch as his bill was pale pink and that the cere at the base of the upper mandible was quite flexible and soft to the touch. The humeral feathers were very red, and the partially concealed transverse black band on the under surface of tail feathers was very clearly defined. In another instance I saw the parent birds and their young flying about.

Another surprise was to find Eopsaltria gularis at the base of the Hills in the heavy timber. The species, however, was very rare, and it was not until the last day but two before leaving the Hills that I secured one, which happened to be attending to the wants of a young Bronze Cuckoo. On the following afternoon I secured another specimen, which turned out to be a young bird. Comparing the one adult bird obtained with a number of adult skins secured at different times on the coast, I found the former to be much smaller and the yellow colour of the upper parts to encompass the upper tail coverts only, and not the lower back. In the absence of a series of skins nothing can be done at present but to record the differences.

Of the Honey-eaters deserving note we shot several specimens of my ornithological "godchild," Melithreptus leucogenys. In every specimen the eye-zones were yellow and the orbits bluish-emerald, and the other characteristics upon which I distinguished it from the Eastern form were also constant. We obtained several skins of Ptilotis cratitia, which were fairly numerous. Glycyphila albifrons were very numerous, and we obtained and saw many nests and eggs. They are restless, vivacious, swift-flying birds, with a variety of call notes. One in particular (their feeding note) resembles the repeated monosyllables "chink, chink." I shot two young birds in different localities, each of which had a bright yellow throat. The bill of one of these two birds was abnormally long, even as compared with adult birds of the same species.

The Psittacidæ family was not well represented in either species or individuals. We obtained three specimens of Platycercus icterotis. I was in hopes when shooting them they would prove Count Salvadori's Platycercus xanthogenys, having cherished the notion for many years past that this latter species, which up to the present is only represented in the cabinet by one skin, will be found in one of the dry inland areas where the eucalypts are not found. This notion was grounded on the theory of protective colouration. The green colouring on the mantle of P. icterotis (the absence of which establishes P. xanthogenys) would in such areas make its possessor always conspicuous, and in consequence an easy prey for its enemies, and in time would lead to its extermination. Birds of the same species without such colouring, and less conspicuous, would have an infinitely