Linnæus placed the genus Psittacus at the head of his order Pica, with the following definition :

Bill hooked; upper mandible moveable, furnished with a cere. Nostrils situated in the base of the bill. Tongue fleshy, obtuse, entire. Feet scansorial.

He divided the genus, which is preceded by Lanius (the Shrikes), and immediately followed by Ramphastos (the Toucans), into the following sections:

*

Macrouri cauda cuneiformi. This division contained the Maccaws.

**

Macrouri minores.

This division contained Psittacus Alexandri and the Parrakeets generally; but both in this and the former divi sion we find Parrots that can hardly be called 'long-tailed.' Thus in the first division we have Psittacus nobilis with the synonyms of Psittacus viridis alarum costa superne rubente of Aldrovandi (vol. i., t. 669), Sloane, Jam., 2, p. 297,'Psittacus Amazonicus, Briss., and Psittacus media magnitudinis Will., t. 16: whilst in the second we find the Psittacus agilis, Psittacus minor viridis of Edwards.

Brachyuri cauda æquali.

This contained the Cockatoos, Lories, and True Parrots. Latham's second order, Pica, consisted of three sections, the second of which, with scansorial feet, included the Parrots, Toucans, Hornbills, Crotophaga, Trogon, Barbets, Cuckoos, Wryneck, Woodpeckers, and Jacamars.

M. de Lacepède makes the Grimpeurs the first subdivision of the first division (two anterior and two posterior toes) of the first subelass of birds. The first order of this subdivision (toes large and strong) is distinguished by a hooked bill, and the genera comprehended under it are Ara (Maccaws) and Psittacus, the latter consisting of all the Parrots and Parrakeets without denuded cheeks. The second order consists of the Toucans, the Trogons, the Touracos, and the Musophage or Plantain-eaters.

curved, the Barbets and Cuckoos; the third, with the bill Ramphastide and Psittacidae, and soften down the inshort and hooked, the Trogons, Crotophaga, and the Par-portant difference observable in the bills and tongues of rots; and the fourth, with the bill long, and of the size of those birds. Mr. Vigors indeed, though he hazards a sug the head, the Toucans. gestion as to Trogon, declares his opinion to be that the Psittacidae afford more difficulties to the inquirer into affinities than any other known group in the whole class. He remarks that in manners and general structure, as well as in the mode of using their feet and bill, the Parrots hold nearly an insulated situation among birds; and that they may perhaps be pronounced to be the only group among them which is completely sui generis. In the formation of his opinion that their station in nature accords with the place assigned them in his series, and that they come next to the Picide in affinity, Mr. Vigors at first felt some doubt in consequence of their bills and tongues here equally apparent, as in the case of the Ramphastida. But he was decided in his opinion by observing that while there was no characters, they possess an affinity to no birds but the other group with which they accord more closely in such Picide in the structure of the foot and the use to which they apply it. He reminds us that the leading characteristic of the Scansores is the faculty of climbing; and that the greater portion of the families contained in it possess what are technically called zygodactyle feet, or feet in which the toes are disposed in pairs, and which are generally considered as conducive to that faculty. But he remarks that the Picide and the Psittacidae are the only families thus distinguished whose toes are strictly and constantly disposed in pairs; and that they are consequently the only groups which constantly benefit by that construction in climbing. The external hind toe of the other Scansores is, he observes, retractile: and these birds are never seen to climb, at least to that extent which is common to the two families in question. We may thus venture, I think,' continues Mr. Vigors, 'to separate the Parrots and Woodpeckers from the other families, and to associate them together, in consequence of the affinity in these essential characteristics of the tribe. In this point of view they will compose its normal groups as climbers par excellence, differing however as to the mode in which they climb; the Parrots using the foot chiefly in grasping the object which assists them in their ascent, and in conjunction with the bill; while the Picide rely upon the strength and straightness of the hind toes in supporting them in a perpendicular position on the sides of trees; in which posture they are also assisted by the strong shafts of the tail-feathers. While I was influenced by these general points of coincidence in placing the Psittacidae and Picida together, I recognised a group which appeared to intervene between them, and to diminish the apparent distance that exists even in the form of their bill. That important group which comprises the Liunean Barbets evidently exhibited the expected gradation in the structure of that member; the bill of Pogonias, Ill., approaching most nearly that of the Parrots by its short strong and hooked conformation, while the straighter and more lengthened bill of the true Bucco united itself to that of Picus. Many other particulars in form, and also in extraordinary conformity in colouring, still further pointed out the affinity; and I was at length confirmed in my conjectures respecting the situation of these birds, by arriving at a knowledge of their habits being actually those of the true Woodpeckers, and of their chief affinity being to that group. The regular gradation by which these two families, united in their general characters, and those the characters, it must be remembered, most prominent and typical in their own tribe, are also united in their minuter points of formation, appears to me now eminently conspicuous.' With regard to these minuter points, Mr. Vigors observes that some of the Psittacidæ, among which he particularises Psittacus Alexandri, Linn. (Palæ ornis), and its congeners, partially employ the tail in supporting themselves as they climb, in a corresponding manner with the Woodpeckers. The tongue, also peculiar to the Psittacidae, he remarks, becomes slenderer, and, as is said, more extensible in that group of which Ps. aterrimus, Gmel., is the representative, thus evincing an approxima tion, slight indeed, but still an approximation to the bill of the Woodpeckers. (Linn. Trans., vol. xiv.)

M. Duméril's Grimpeurs form his third order, the second family of which (Levirostres or Cénoramphes) consists of the Toucans, Plantain-eaters, Trogons, Touracos, Barbets Maccaws, Cockatoos, and Parrots.

The Psittacini form the first family of Illiger's Scansores, and include the genera Psittacus and Pezoporus. His second family, Serrati, consists of the Toucans (Ramphastos and Pteroglossus), Pogonias, the Touracos, the Trogons, and the Plantain-eaters.

Cuvier places the Psittacidae between the Toucans and the Touracos: they consist of the Aras (Ara, Kuhl): Perruches (Conurus, Kuhl, divided by Le Vaillant into Perruches-Aras, which have naked cheeks (Psittacus Guyanensis, &c.); Perruches à queue en flèche (Palæornis); and Perruches à queue élargie vers le bout (Platycercus). Cockatoos (Plyctolophus): True Parrots: Lories: Shorttailed Parrots (Psittacula, Kuhl): and Parroquets à Trompe, Le Vaill. (Microglossus, Vieill.), of which last Cuvier thinks that the Perruches Ingambes (Pezoporus, Ill.) may be made a subgenus.

M.Vieillot's first tribe of his second order, Sylvicolæ, consists of the Zygodactyli; and the Psittacins, or Psittacidae, form the first family of that tribe. The second family comprehends the Macroglosses, including the Woodpeckers and the Wryneck.

M. Temminck arranges all the Parrots at the end of his first family of Zygodactyles; the second family consists of the Woodpeckers, the Jacamars, and the Wryneck.

M. de Blainville (1815-1822) makes the Parrots his first order of birds (Prehensores), belonging to the anomalous subclass.

Mr. Vigors arranges the Psittacidae in the normal group of the Scansores, or climbing-birds, and he observes that the immediate connection of the Ramphastide (Toucans) with Psittacidae, which immediately follow them in his method, is not very evident. These families, he remarks are placed next to each other by all systematic writers; and he deci- | dedly concurs in the general views which bring them into neighbouring groups. But he states that he is unacquainted with any forms which intimately connect the

M. Latreille makes the Psittacins the first family of the order Grimpeurs. He divides the family into two tribes: the first consisting of the genera Ara, Perruche, Pezopore, and Kakatoës; and the second of the genus Eurhynque.

In the method of M. de Blainville developed by M Lber

minier in 1827, the family of Parrots appears in the Normal subclass between the Touracos and the Humming-Birds.

In M. Lesson's Projet de Classification, the 'Psittacées' appear as the first tribe (Zygodactyles) of the Insessores or Grimpeurs (Héterodactyles):' they are immediately succeeded by the Pogonices.'

Subfamily III. Palæornina.
Genera: Trichoglossus, Vig. and Horsf. (Fsittacus, Linn.
Australasia, Less.); Palæornis, Vig. (Psittacus, Linn.
Psittaca, Br., Conurus, Less.); Pezoporus, Ill. (Psittacus
Shaw); Polytelis, Wagl. (Psittacus, Sw., Palæornis, Vig
and Horsf.); Centrourus, Sw. (Psittacus, Lath., Tricho-
glossus, Vig. and Horsf.); Euphema, Wagl. (Psittacus,
Lath., Lathamus, Less., Nanodes, Vig. and Horsf.).
Subfamily IV. Lorinæ.

Genera: Charmosyna, Wagl. (Psittacus, Gm., Psittapous,
Less., Pyrrhodes, Sw., Palæornis, Vig.); Brotogeris, Vig.
(Psittacus, Lath., Trichoglossus? Steph., Coriphilus,
Wagl., Lorius and Lathamus, Less.); Lorius, Briss. (Psit-
tacus, Linn., Domicella, Wagl.); Eos, Wagl. (Psittacus,
Gm.); Electus, Wagl. (Psittacus, Gm.); Psittacodis, Wagl.
(Psittacus, Linn., Muscarinus, Wagl.).
Subfamily V. Psittacinæ.

Mr. Swainson is of opinion that the Parrots constitute the subtypical division of the Scansores, wherein the powers of climbing are less developed. If,' says Mr. Swainson, any group in nature be isolated, it is this. Possessing in themselves the strongest characteristics, there is no bird yet discovered which presents any point of connection to them approximations indeed are certainly made towards them by the tooth-billed Barbuts (Barbets, Pogonias); but there is still a gap, which no genus yet discovered is calculated to fill up. On considering the relative difference between the barbuts and the parrots, we should say, theoretically, that of all the five groups among the latter, one only remains to give the typical structure.' As the Parrots ap-nus, Less., Erythrostomus, Sw.); Triclaria, Wagl. (Psittapear to Mr. Swainson to form a group precisely equivalent to the true Woodpeckers, he arranges them under five genera: the Maccaws, the Parrots, the Cockatoos, the Lories, and the Ground Lories (Platycercus, Vig.). In the synopsis at the end of the work (Classification of Birds) we find | the following arrangement:

Psittacidæ.

Genera: Tanygnathus, Wagl. (Psittacus, Linn., Muscari

cus, Spix, Erythrostomus, Sw., Maximilicus, Less.); Psittacus, Linn. (Jaco, Less.); Chrysotis, Sw. (Psittacus, Linn., Androglossus, Vig. ?); Pionus, Wagl. (Psittacus, Linn.); Poicephalus, Sw. (Psittacus, Linn., Pionus B., Wagl.); Agapornis, Selby (Psittacus, Kuhl, Psittacula, Wagl., Poicephalus, Sw.); Psittacula, Kuhl (Psittacus, Lath., Psittaculus, Sw.); Nasiterna, Wagl. (Psittacus, Quoy and

Bill very short: the upper mandible greatly curved over Gaim., Micropsitta, Less.). the lower, which is considerably shorter.

Subfamily Maccrocercinæ. Maccaws. Upper mandible greatly hooked; lower mandible much higher than broad. Tail very long, cuneated. Genera: Macrocercus, Vieill.; Conurus, Kuhl; Leptorhynchus, Sw.; Palæornis, Vig.

Subfamily Psittacinæ. Parrots. Upper mandible very distinctly toothed; lower mandible longer than it is high. Tail short, even, or rounded.

Genera: Erythrostomus, Sw.; Chrysotis, Sw. (Amazonian Parrots); Psittacus (Parrot of the Old World-most typical of this subfamily); Agapornis, Selby; Poicephalus, Sw.

Subfamily Plyctolophinæ. Cockatoos.

Head large, ornamented with a folding or procumbent crest. Bill short, very broad; the culmen remarkably curved. Tail rounded, lengthened, broad; the feathers not narrowed.

Genera: Plyctolophus, Vieill. (subtypical); Licmetis, Wagl.; Microglassus, Geoff.; Centrourus, Sw.

Subfamily Lorianæ. Lories.

Bill but slightly curved; the margin of the upper mandible sinuated; the notch obsolete; lower mandible slender, conic, much longer than high; the gonys (typically) straight.

Genera: Brotogeris, Vig.; Psittaculus, Kuhl; Trichoglossus, Vig.; Lorius, Brisson; Pyrrhodes, Sw.

Subfamily Platycercinæ. Loriets.

Tail long, very broad, considerably cuneated. Bill strong, thick, toothed: the culmen very convex. Under mandible deep, but very short: the gonys curved. Feet and toes slender. Tarsus longer than the hallux.

Genera: Vigorsia, Sw.; Platycercus, Horsf. and Vig.; Nanodes, Horsf. and Vig.; Leptolophus, Sw.; Pezoporus, Ill. (Swainson).

The family is placed by Mr. Swainson between the Ramphastida and the Picida.

Mr. G. R. Gray (List of the Genera of Birds) also arranges the Psittacidae between the Ramphastide and the Picidæ, in the following method:-

Subfamily I. Platycercinæ.

|

Subfamily VI. Cacatuinæ.

Genera: Cacatua, Briss. (Psittacus, Linn., Plyctolophus, Vieill., Kakadoe, Kuhl); Calyptorhynchus, Vig. and Horsf. (Psittacus, Lath., Cacatua, Vieill., Banksianus, Less., Plyctolophus, Sw.); Corydon, Wagl. (Psittacus, Lath., Plyctolophus, Sw., Calyptorhynchus, Vig. and Horsf.); Licmetis, Wagl. (Psittacus, Kuhl, Cacatua, Less.); Microglossum, Geoffr. (Psittacus, Gm., Cacatua, Vieill., Probosciger, Kuhl, Solenoglossus, Rantz., Eurhynchus, Latr.); Nestor, Wagl. (Psittacus, Forst., Plyctolophus, Gould); Dasyptilus, Wagl. (Psittacus, Less., Psittrichas, Less., Centrourus, Sw.).

Of the genera here stated, Leptorhynchus is noted as having been previously employed; and Nanodes and Potytelis as being similar to a word used in entomology. Other forms are marked in the subfamily Psittacinæ, viz. P. Feildii, Sw., P. pileatus, Scop., and P. mitratus, Pr. Max., with a query as to whether they are not entitled to rank as genera.

It is impossible to read this elaborate catalogue without being struck with the labyrinth of names in which the unfortunate student must find himself involved. In too many instances the genera thus coined bear the impress of crude theory, and those who promulgate them would find it very difficult to define the characters on which they ought to rest.

We proceed to lay before the reader some of these forms. Macrocercus.-The Maccaws are all natives of America, and principally of its southern portion. The Carolina Arara (Psittacus Carolinensis, Linn.) has been recorded as occurring in the United States as high as lat. 42°, though, according to Audubon, few are now to be found higher than Cincinnati; but the true Maccaws are natives of much warmer latitudes. Though the tongue is thick, fleshy, and soft, their powers of imitation fall far short of those of the true Parrots and Parrakeets, and the harsh tones with which, after much teaching, they not very perfectly articulate a few words, contrast strongly with the assumed musical voice and ready docility of the latter. They are however capable of great attachment when domesticated. Their natural notes are screams of the most discordant and pierc

Genera: Coracopsis, Wagl. (Psittacus, Linn.; Musca- ing kind. The hollows of trees are the places selected rinus, Less.; Vigorsia, Sw.).

Prioniturus, Wagl. (Psittacus, Vieill.).
Platycercus, Vig. (Psittacus, Lath.).
Nymphicus, Wagl. (Psittacus, Lath.; Calopsitta, Lath.;
Leptolophus, Sw.).

Subfamily II. Araïnæ.

for their nests, and the number of eggs laid amounts to two, which are said to undergo the incubation of the male as well as the female.

The Great Green Maccaw (Psittacus militaris, Auct.), inhabiting the warmer districts of the chain of the Andes, where it is found as high as about 3000 feet, in Mexico and Genera: Ara, Briss. (Psittacus, Linn., Macrocercus, Peru; the Hyacinthine Maccaw (Macrocercus HyacinVieill, Sittace, Wagl., Arara, Spix); Anodorhynchus, thinus; the Red and Blue Maccaw (Macrocercus AracanSpix (Psittacus, Lath., Macrocercus, Vieill.-Ex. Hyacin- ga; and the Blue and Yellow Maccaw (Macrocercus Arathine Maccaw); Conurus, Kuhl (Psittacus, Shaw, Ara-rauna), are known to most admirers of this gay race; though tinga, Spix, Psittacara, Vig., Sittace, Wagl., Macrocercus, the Hyacinthine Maccaw is rarely seen alive in this country, 2nd div. Vieill.); Enicognathus, G. R. Gray (Psittacara, and is not common even in museums. King, Sittace, Wagl., Leptorhynchus, Sw., Psittacaria, Meyen).

Generic Character.-Size large. Orbits and sometimes the face destitute of feathers. Nostrils concealed. Notch

in the upper mandible obsolete; the under remarkably | lant situation between the two groups, thus strikingly appashort, but very deep. (Sw.)

received a great number of the same species from that island. If to these birds we add the P. torquatus, which is the species that agrees most intimately with the descriptions of Pliny, and, after him, of Apuleius, and which is generally scattered over the Indian as well as the African continent on the eastern side, we shall probably have before us all the species known to the antients of this classical group.' Generic Character.- Bill rather thick; the upper mandible dilated, the culmen round, the lower mandible broad, short, and emarginate. Wings moderate; three last quills (extimis) nearly equal, longest; external webs of the second, third, and fourth gradually broader in the middle. Tail graduated; the two middle very slender feathers much exceeding the rest in length, Feet with short and weak tarsi; the claws moderate, rather slender, and falcate. Body slender and neat. (Vig.)

Mr. Vigors divides the genus into the following sections:*Lower mandible short.

those who confine the Parrakeets known to the antients to | is probable also that the Romans, particularly in later times, that bird have taken too narrow a view of the subject. Mr. Vigors, in the paper above alluded to, saysIt is not easy to decide, although we may form a probable conjecture on the subject, how many and which of the species of Palæornis were known to the antients. Elian (De Nat. Anim., xvi. 2) tells us that they were acquainted with three species. But as some of the more common species approach each other most closely in their specific characters, it is not improbable that the differences between them might have been passed over by observers who were so little accustomed and had so little occasion to pay attention to minute distinctions, and that four or five species at least were familiar to antiquity. The birds that come from the remoter Indian islands, P. Papuensis, Malaccensis, and Xanthosomus, in particular, are in all likelihood among the number of those which have been only known in recent times. To these may of course be added the newlycharacterised species from New Holland, the P. Barrabandi. The beautiful blossom-headed species also, P. erythrocephalus and Bengalensis, which are even now more rarely met with than the neighbouring species, most probably did not come under the observations of the antients; for it is impossible that they should have passed over without notice the lovely and changeable roseate colour of the head, which casts into the shade even the collar round the neck so frequently alluded to by them, if either of these birds had been before them. The poets at least would have seized upon a character which involved so truly poetic an image, and Ovid or Statius would have woven it up among the most conspicuous wreaths of their beautiful elegiac garlands. P. bitorquatus, the locality of which is unknown, is at present of rare occurrence; but it formerly might have been more generally distributed. The species which we can imagine to have been best known to former times are the P. Pondicerianus and flavitorquis, which are diffused over the whole of the Indian continent, the former species more particularly, which is now also found dispersed over a

P. Alexandri, P. torquatus, P. flavitorquis, P. bitorqua tus, P. Xanthosomus, P. Malaccensis, P. erythrocephalus P. Bengalensis, P. Pondicerianus, P. Barrabandi. **Lower mandible elongated.

P. Papuensis.

We select as an example the generic type, P. Alexandri. Description.-Green, with a vermillion collar; throat and band between the eyes black; spot on the wings purplered. Differs from P. torquatus by the greater size of the bill and the dark red spot on the shoulders. (Vig.) Locality.-Ceylon and parts of the continent of India. Platycercus (Loriets).

Generic Character.-Bill rather short, the upper mandible rounded and dilated, the lower one short, deeply emarginate, with the apex squared. Wings rounded; the first quill shorter than the second and equal to the fifth; second and third longest; the external webs of all except the first abruptly notched towards the middle. Tail broad, depressed, rather rounded or sub-graduated; the tail-feathers rounded at the apex. Feet with elevated tarsi; the toes slender and elongated, and the claws long and but little falcated.

Example, Platycercus scapulatus, Tabuan Parrot, or King's Parrot.

Description.-Male.-Green; the head, neck, and body beneath scarlet; nuchal lunula and rump lazuline; longitudinal scapular line pale green-cerulean; tail-feathers black, with brilliant green reflections.

Female.-Head and neck green.

Locality.-New Holland.

Palæornis Alexandri.

great extent of the Eastern Archipelago. P. Alexandri appears to have been the bird sent from Ceylon to the Macedonian warrior from whom it derives its specific name; Ceylon, or the antient Tabrobana, being the principal resort, even down to the present moment, of that species. And it

Platycercus scapulatus.

corn is ripe, they may be seen in large flocks on the farms, | still darker at its extremity; in having the throat greyishclinging on the stalks and occasioning much mischief to the brown and the back lighter than in the male; the lower corn. He apprehends that the greater part of these flocks part of the abdomen, upper tail coverts, and tail-feathers are young birds, as it is rare to see a bright red one among yellow, except the four middle ones, which are grey; the them. The natives told him that this species breeds chiefly whole transversely and irregularly barred with lines of in a white gum-tree (a species of Eucalyptus), making its brown. Total length twelve inches. nest of a little grass, and lining it with feathers. It has, he Locality.-New Holland. adds, as many as twelve young ones, and the eggs are of a dirty white with black specks: the nest is found by its enlarging the hole at which it creeps in; this process gives the surrounding part a reddish appearance, which, forming a contrast with the whiteness of the other parts, renders it conspicuous.

Mr. Swainson had one of these beautiful birds alive in his possession for many years. Its manners were gentle and timid. Like many of its congeners, it delighted to wash itself in a basin of water. In the day and during winter it was generally silent; but on a mild evening it would go on for two or three hours with a somewhat whistling note, sometimes shrill, but generally soft and pleasing. Its ordinary diet was moistened bread, with a little hemp and canary seed; but during summer and autumn the small garden fruits appeared to be highly welcome to (Zool. Ill., 2nd series.) Nymphicus.

Habits, &c.-Mr. Gould, whose accurate description we have given from his grand work on the Birds of Australia, now in the course of publication, states that this species has many of the actions of the Platycerci, being extremely active and running round its cage with surprising agility, in which particular it is only equalled by the most terrestrial members of the family. To give some idea of the immense flocks of this beautiful bird which inhabit the interior of Australia, the same author informs us that his brother-inlaw, Stephen Coxen, Esq., procured more than two hundred examples during a single excursion into the interior. Euphemia, Wagl. (Nanodes, Vig.).

Generic Character.-Bill short, the culmen rounded, higher than it is long, being very like that of Macrocercus, the lower mandible very short, inclining inwards, and emarit.ginate. Wings moderate, subacuminate; first and second quills, which are nearly equal, longest; the external webs of the second and third slightly emarginate towards the apex. Feet moderate; tarsi and toes rather slender. Tu graduated, cuneated; tail-feathers slender towards the apex. (Vig.) Example, Euphemia undulata.

Generic Character.-Bill distinctly toothed, culmen slightly carinated; nostrils thick, tumid, naked; head erested; wings very long, outer web of the quills not sinuated; tail very broad, cuneated, the two middle tail-feathers conspicuously longest and pointed. (Sw.)

(Mr. Swainson considers this to be the rasorial type.) Example, Nymphicus Nova Hollandia. Description.-Male.-Forehead, crest, and cheeks lemonyellow; ear-coverts rich reddish-orange; back of the neck, two centre tail-feathers, and the external margins of the primaries brownish-grey; back, shoulders, and all the under surface and outer tail-feathers greyish chocolate-brown, the shoulders and flanks being the darkest; a white mark extends from the shoulders lengthwise down the centre of the wing; bill and bare space round the eye brownish-grey; feet blackish-brown.

Description.-Male.-Crown of the head and throat pale yellow, the latter ornamented on each side with several rich blue spots, a row of which, but of a darker tint, crosses the throat in the form of a crescent; sides and back of the head, back of the neck, upper part of the back, scapulars and wing-coverts olive brown, each feather having a crescent shaped mark of black near its extremity, and margined with yellow; primaries green on their outer edges, the tip and internal web brown; secondaries crossed by a broad band of yellow, which is continued, but much narrower, across some of the primaries; breast, all the under surface, lower part of the back, and the tail-coverts fine pale green; two centre tail-feathers deep blue at the base, passing into deep green at the tip; the remainder of the tail-feathers bright yellow, tipped with dark green; bill horn-colour at the base, passing into pale yellow at the tip; feet fleshcolour.

Female.-Differs in being less brilliant in all her markings, and in having the blue spots on the throat less defined and irregular in form. Total length seven inches and a half (Gould, Birds of Australia.)

Locality.-Interior of New South Wales.

Nymphicus Nova Hollandiæ

Female.-Differs from the male in the colour of the face and crest being of a dull olive-yellow, the latter becoming P C., No. 1178.

Euphemia undulata.

Habits, &c.-Captain Sturt discovered this species in great abundance in the interior of New South Wales. He informed Mr. Gould that on the extensive plains bordering the Morumbidgee he met with it in immense flocks, feeding upon the seeds and berries of the low stunted bushes called scrubs. Mr. Gould also received several from Mr. Coxen, which the latter had procured to the north of Hunter's River. Mr. Gould adds that they are quick and active, and VOL. XIX.-N