Part 17

Dulang and Julang, Aborigines of New South Wales.

This beautiful bird is very generally dispersed over New South Wales, where it inhabits grassy hills and brushes, particularly those of the Liverpool range and all similar districts. Its food consists of berries and the seeds of various grasses, to obtain which it descends in small companies to the bases of the hills and to the open glades; I have often flushed it from such situations, and when six or eight rose together with outspread tails of beautiful pale blue, offering a decided contrast to the rich scarlet livery of the body, I could never fail to pause and admire the splendour of their appearance, of which no description can give an adequate idea; the Platycerci must, in fact, be seen in their native wilds before their beautiful appearance can be appreciated, or the interesting nature of their habits at all understood. Although I have stated that New South Wales is the true habitat of this bird, I must not fail to record that individuals have come under my notice which had been killed in Norfolk Island; I am led to believe, however, that the bird must have been taken thither from New South Wales, and that a sufficient number had either escaped or been let loose to establish a breed. The habitats of the various Platycerci are generally very restricted; it is not probable therefore that the range of this species extends to an island several hundred miles distant from the main land; how far it may range along the south coast, or to the eastward and northward of New South Wales, I have never satisfactorily ascertained; I have seen it from Kangaroo Island, but I never met with it in the belts of the Murray, or in any of the forests round Adelaide, its place in that part of the country being supplied by the Platycercus Adelaidiæ.

As I have said, the food of this species principally consists of berries and grass-seeds, but insects appear occasionally to form a part of its diet, as I found the crop of one specimen filled with small caterpillars; it was, however, a solitary occurrence.

Like the other members of the genus, the Platycercus Pennantii runs rapidly over the ground, but its flight is neither rapid nor enduring. In disposition it is tame and destitute of distrust, and as a pet for the aviary or a cage, few birds can exceed it in interest or beauty; consequently it is one of the commonest of the living parrakeets sent from Australia to this country.

It breeds in the holes of the large gum-trees, generally selecting those on the hill-sides within the brushes; and of such situations, the cedar brushes of the Liverpool range appear to be a favourite locality. The months of September, October and November constitute the breeding season. It makes no nest, but deposits its eggs, which are white, about an inch and two lines long, eleven and a half lines broad, and from four to seven in number, on the rotten wood at the bottom of the hole.

The colouring of the sexes when fully adult is alike, but much variation exists between youth and maturity; during the first autumn the young birds are clothed in a plumage of a nearly uniform green; to this succeeds a parti-coloured livery of scarlet, blue and green, which colouring is continually changing until the full plumage of maturity is assumed; and hence has arisen no little confusion respecting this species in the writings of the older ornithologists, and it is not to be wondered at that its synonyms are so numerous.

The adult male has the head, neck, all the under surface, the rump and upper tail-coverts rich deep crimson-red; the feathers of the back and scapularies black, broadly margined with rich crimson-red; the cheeks and shoulders cœrulean blue; the greater wing-coverts pale blue; the primaries and secondaries black, with the basal half of their external webs margined with deep blue; the two centre tail-feathers green, passing into blue on their margins and at the tip; the remainder black on the inner webs for three-fourths of their length; deep blue for nearly the same length on their outer webs, and largely tipped on both webs with pale blue, which becomes still paler to the tips of the feathers; bill horn-colour; irides very dark brown; feet blackish brown.

The young vary so much, that to give an accurate description is almost impossible; one now before me has the crown of the head, sides of the neck, centre of the breast, abdomen, rump, upper and under tail-coverts deep crimson-red; the upper surface and a broad band across the breast deep grass-green; the cheeks, wings and tail similar to those parts in the adult, but much less brilliant.

The Plate represents an adult and an immature bird of the natural size.

PLATYCERCUS FLAVIVENTRIS.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

PLATYCERCUS FLAVIVENTRIS. Yellow-bellied Parrakeet.

Psittacus flaviventris, Temm. in Linn. Trans., vol. xiii. pp. 116–118.

———— Brownii, Kuhl, Nova Acta, etc., vol. x. p. 56. no. 90.

Perruche à large queue, Le Vaill. Hist. Nat. des Perr., pl. 80.

Van Diemen’s Parrot?, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 130. no. 33.

Platycercus flaviventris, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 281.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part II.

Sulphur-headed Parrot?, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 133. no. 35.

New Caledonian Parrot?, Lath. Ib., vol. ii. p. 173. no. 86.

Psittacus Caledonicus?, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 102.—Gmel. Linn., vol. i. p. 328.

Caledonian Parrot?, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. i. p. 248.

Green Parrot, Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.

There appears to be so much confusion respecting this bird that I have thought it best to adopt M. Temminck’s name of flaviventris, although I have little doubt that the Psittacus Caledonicus of Latham, as well as most of the other synonyms given above, refer to the same bird.

It is dispersed over all parts of Van Diemen’s Land and the islands in Bass’s Straits; but is not confined to particular localities like the Platycercus eximius, with which it sometimes associates. It keeps in small companies, which appear to be the brood of a single pair, and frequents every variety of situation, from the low-crowned hills and gulleys in the depths of the forest to the open cleared lands and gardens of the settlers. It runs over the ground with great facility, and when observed in small flocks searching for seeds among the tall grass of the open parts, few birds are seen to greater advantage.

Independently of grass-seeds, the flowers of the Eucalypti, insects and their larvæ constitute a considerable portion of the food of this bird, and it may be often seen very busily engaged about the branches loaded with flowers in the depths of the forest far away from any cleared lands.

Its powers of flight are very considerable, and it readily passes from one district to another whenever a scarcity of food or any other cause prompts it so to do; the passage being performed in a succession of wide undulating sweeps; hence it not unfrequently happens that large flights leave the forest with a shrill whistling call, and descend to the newly ripened corn of the settlers, and there commit such serious havoc as to call down the vengeance of the farmer on the whole race.

Most of my readers are doubtless aware that Parrots are frequently eaten by man, but few of them are, perhaps, prepared to hear that many species of the family constitute at certain seasons a staple portion of the food of the settlers: soon after the establishment of the colonies of Van Diemen’s Land, pies made of the bird here represented were commonly eaten at every table, and even at the present time are not of unfrequent occurrence. It was not long after my arrival in the country before I tested the goodness of the flesh of this bird as a viand, and I found it so excellent that I partook of it whenever an opportunity for my so doing presented itself. It is delicate, tender, and well-flavoured; but, like that of all other birds, is not so good at some seasons as at others, and very old birds are of course not equal to those of one year old. If we take into consideration the kind of food upon which it subsists, the extreme delicacy and fineness of its skin, and its comparatively inactive mode of life, we might naturally conclude that its flesh would be such as I have described it to be; and although this observation applies more or less to all the species of the genera Platycercus and Euphema, I consider the present bird to be in this respect preeminent.

Like other species of the genus, it bears confinement well; and although it is not so frequently met with in the cage or the aviary as some of its more gaily attired brethren, it must not be attributed to any inaptitude for domestication on the part of the bird.