Part 32

Kȍw-ar, Aborigines of Western Australia.

This handsome little Lorikeet was first brought before the notice of the scientific world by Mr. Dietrichsen at the Meeting of the Linnean Society, held on the 20th of March, 1832; some confusion, however, exists as to the name then proposed for it. In a report of the Meeting published in the “Philosophical Magazine” for the same year it is called Psittacus purpurea; but in the seventeenth volume of the “Linnean Transactions” it is correctly placed in the genus Trichoglossus, with the far more appropriate specific appellation of porphyrocephalus, which I therefore retain.

Although the Porphyry-crowned Lorikeet has been thus long described, it is still very rarely to be seen in collections, a fact which may be accounted for by the circumstance of its being an inhabitant of those parts of Australia with which we have hitherto had little intercourse.

It is not found in New South Wales, and I do not recollect ever having seen it in collections from any of the eastern parts. It is abundant in South Australia, is equally numerous in the white-gum forests of Swan River, and in all probability is dispersed over the whole of the intermediate country. It is the only species of the genus I have seen from Western Australia, a circumstance which cannot be accounted for, since the face of the country is covered with trees of a similar character.

Most of the specimens I collected were shot during the months of June and July in the neighbourhood of Adelaide, and some of them in the town itself. It appears to arrive in this district at the flowering season of the Eucalypti, in company with Trichoglossus Swainsonii, concinnus and pusillus, all of which may frequently be seen on the same tree at one time: the incessant clamour kept up by multitudes of these birds baffles description; the notes of the larger species are, however, distinguishable by their superiority in harshness and loudness; they feed together in perfect amity, and it is not unusual to see two or three species on the same branch. They are all so remarkably tame, that any number of shots may be fired amongst them without causing the slightest alarm to any but those that are actually wounded. Although strictly gregarious, they appear to be always mated in pairs, which accompany each other in their various movements among the branches. The whole of one species frequently leave the tree simultaneously, rushing off with amazing quickness in search of other trees laden with newly-expanded flowers, among which they dash and commence feeding with the utmost eagerness, clinging and creeping among the branches in every possible attitude. As this tribe of birds depends solely for its subsistence upon the flowers of the gum-trees, their presence in any locality would be vainly sought for at any season when those trees are not in blossom.

The sexes are precisely alike in size and in the colour of their plumage.

Forehead, lores and ear-coverts yellow, intermingled with scarlet; crown of the head deep purple; back of the head and neck yellowish green; wing-coverts and rump grass-green; shoulder light blue; under surface of the wing crimson; primaries blackish brown, margined externally with deep green, the extreme edge being greenish yellow; tail green above, golden beneath; throat and under surface greenish grey, passing into golden green on the flanks and under tail-coverts; bill black; irides in some dark brown, in others light reddish brown, with a narrow ring of orange round the pupil; feet bluish flesh-colour.

The figures are of the natural size.

TRICHOGLOSSUS PUSILLUS: Vig. & Horsf.

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

TRICHOGLOSSUS PUSILLUS, Vig. and Horsf. Little Parrakeet.

Psittacus pusillus, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 106.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 471.—Kuhl, Nova Acta, tom. x. p. 47.

Perruche à face rouge, Le Vaill. Perr., tom. i. p. 124. pl. 62.

Small Parrakeet, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. ii. p. 88.

Small Paroquet, Psittacus pusillus, Shaw in White’s Journ., pl. in p. 262.

Small Parrot, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 194.

Trichoglossus pusillus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 293.—Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., tom. i. pp. 493 and 548.

Lathamus pusillus, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 206.

Jerryang, Aborigines of New South Wales.

This familiar species, the least of the Australian Psittacidæ yet discovered, enjoys a range of habitat precisely similar to that of the Trichoglossus concinnus, being dispersed over the whole of New South Wales, South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land; it is, however, more sparingly diffused over the latter country. I found it tolerably abundant and killed several specimens on Maria Island, near the entrance of Storm Bay. On the continent of Australia it is not only to be found in the same districts and at the same seasons of the year as T. concinnus, but it is more frequently observed in company with that species than alone; flocks of each often occupying the same tree, and even the same branch, all busily engaged in extracting their nectarine food. Like its near ally, the present bird creeps about under and among the leaves with the greatest facility, and like the other members of the group, appears to be always associated in pairs. As might be expected from the structure of its wing, which is admirably adapted for rapid progression, it flies through the air with arrow-like swiftness.

I succeeded in finding the breeding-places of this species, and on the 11th of October 1839, procured four eggs from a hole in a small branch of a lofty Eucalyptus, growing on the flats at Yarrundi on the Upper Hunter. The eggs were white and of an oval form, nine lines and a half long by seven lines and a half broad.

In Western Australia this species is represented by the Trichoglossus porphyrocephalus, and on the north coast by the T. versicolor. It would appear to inosculate with its western ally in South Australia, both being equally numerous there, around, and even upon the trees within the city of Adelaide.

The sexes are similar in plumage and differ but little in size; the female is, however, rather more diminutive than her mate.

Face deep red; back of the neck brown; all the remainder of the plumage grass-green; primaries, secondaries and greater coverts black, margined externally with grass-green; two centre tail-feathers and outer webs of the remainder grass-green; the inner webs of the lateral feathers fine red at the base, passing into greenish yellow towards the tip; bill black; cere and orbits dark olive-brown; irides orange, surrounded by a narrow line of yellow.

The figures are of the natural size.

PTILINOPUS SWAINSONII: Gould.

J. Gould and H.C. Richter del^t. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

PTILINOPUS SWAINSONII, Gould. Swainson’s Fruit Pigeon.