Part 28

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.

J. & E. Gould del^t. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

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.