Page:The Emu volume 4.djvu/186

 Gould's grounds of distinction between the adult males of the two species were that the ear coverts, lores, and the region around the eyes of P. jalcata were grey or ashy-grey instead of black as in P. rufiventris. But these distinguishing marks are not constant, and are found in both species. I secured two adult males at Ebano, one having those parts black, and the other having them grey, but in all other respects identical. Then, again, I looked at two adult male skins obtained by Dr. House in the far north, in the Kimberley expedition, one of which possessed these parts black and the other grey. Comparing skins from Perth, Yandanooka, and the Kimberley district, there is not any difference in any one form except that the Kimberley birds are not so flaky and loose in the plumage as the southern ones. The difference between the female birds from the same localities is that in the northern species the longitudinal brown streaks of the breast are much more narrow; but this, again, is variable, for I have handled a skin obtained at Moore River, about 100 miles north of Perth, where these lines in the female were very much more narrow than in the birds at Yandanooka, 160 miles farther north.

Individuals of the species were very numerous at Yandanooka-Ebano, their melodious voices filling the scrub-lands. They have one distinctive call, which they frequently use in the middle day. It resembles the sound of the word "Joey," and is repeated in a high, penetrating tone fully twenty times without taking breath.

Barnardius zonarius (Shaw); Psephotus multicolor (Temm.) — When at Ebano the native cattle-minder brought in four young birds of the latter species just ready to fly, and on our return journey from Ebano to Yandanooka we harried a nest of the former species and obtained four young ones in the same condition. One only of the Grass-Parrakeets lived (a male bird), and I have him in captivity, and I have also one of the Yellow-collared Parrakeets. My object in mentioning these species is not on account of their rarity, but of the plumage phases of the young. Each bird has proved to be a most lovable and docile pet. The tail of each began to grow most rapidly in length—quite an inch per week until the normal length was attained. The moult began simultaneously in each bird, about ten weeks after leaving the nest. In the Grass-Parrakeet the brownish feathers of the back have changed into a dark grass-green; the thighs have become vermilion; the frontal band and shoulder-patch changed from light yellow to a deep orange-yellow; and the porphyry-coloured patch on the back of the head has become a deep maroon. In the Collared Parrakeet the abdomen was almost yellow, but this has now changed to pale green, leaving a yellow band between the abdomen and the breast. The smoke-coloured head has changed to dull black, and the forehead shows here and there a brick-red spot. In the adult bird it is said there is not any frontal red band as in B. semitorquatus. Perhaps the red spots referred to may afterwards disappear, and may only be evidences of the original type. In feeding my captive (B. zonarius) holds his food between the hallux and first toe, these