_J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
TRICHOGLOSSUS CONCINNUS, _Vig. and Horsf._
Musky Parrakeet.
_Psittacus Australis_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 104.
_Psittacus concinnus_, Shaw, Nat. Misc., pl. 87.—Kuhl, Nova Acta, tom.
x. p. 46.
_Perruche à bandeau rouge_, Le Vaill. Perr., tom. i. p. 99. pl. 48.
_Pacific Paroquet_, Phill. Bot. Bay, pl. in p. 155.
_Pacific Parrot_, Lath. Gen. Syn., vol. ii. p. 87.
_Pacific Parrakeet_, _Psittacus pacificus_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol.
viii. p. 419.
_Crimson-fronted Parrakeet_, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ii. p. 181.
_Psittacus rubrifrons_, Bechst. Uebers der Vog., Lath. s. 84. no. 99.
_Trichoglossus concinnus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv.
p. 292.—Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. i. pl. 34.
_Lathamus concinnus_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 206.
_Trichoglossus Australis_, Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., tom. i. pp.
493 and 549.
_Psittacus velatus_, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxv. p.
373.—Ib. Ency. Méth. Orn., Part III. p. 1405.
_Coolich_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
_Musk Parrakeet_, Colonists.
This species of _Trichoglossus_ inhabits Van Diemen’s Land, New South
Wales and South Australia, and is very generally distributed over all
parts of those countries. I have never heard of its inhabiting either
the western or northern portions of Australia, whence I infer that its
habitat is restricted to the south and south-eastern divisions of the
continent. Like every other species of the genus, the present bird is
always to be found upon the _Eucalypti_, whose blossoms afford it a
never-failing supply of honey, one or other of the numerous species of
that tribe of trees being in flower at all seasons of the year. It is
stationary in New South Wales, but I am not certain that it is so in the
more southern country of Van Diemen’s Land, where it is known by the
name of the Musk Parrakeet, from the peculiar odour of the bird.
It is a noisy species, and with its screeching note keeps up a perpetual
din around the trees in which it is located. During its search for honey
it creeps among the leaves and smaller branches in the most
extraordinary manner, hanging and clinging about them in every possible
variety of position. It generally associates in flocks, and is so
excessively tame that it is very difficult to drive it from the trees,
or even from any particular branch. Although usually associated in
flocks it appears to be mated in pairs, which at all times keep together
during flight, and settle side by side when the heat of the sun prompts
them to shelter themselves under the shade of the more redundantly
leaved branches.
The eggs, which are dirty white and two in number, are of a rounded
form, one inch in length and seven-eighths of an inch in breadth. Those
I obtained were taken from a hole in a large _Eucalyptus_ growing on the
Liverpool range.
The sexes present no difference in colour, and the young assume the
plumage of the adult at a very early age.
Forehead and ear-coverts deep crimson-red; at the upper part of the back
a broad patch of light chestnut-brown; the remainder of the plumage
grass-green; on the flanks a spot of orange; primaries and secondaries
black, broadly margined on the external webs with grass-green; base of
all but the inner webs of the lateral tail-feathers deep red at the
base, passing into yellow and tipped with grass-green; bill blackish
brown, passing into reddish orange at the tip; cere and orbits
olive-brown; irides buff, surrounded by a narrow circle of yellow.
I was not aware, until after the impressions of the present plate had
been printed, that Dr. Latham had applied the specific term of
_Australis_ to this bird long before that of _concinnus_ was conferred
upon it by Shaw; a fact, however, with which the accurate Wagler was
acquainted, and which he has recorded in his valuable Monograph of the
_Psittacidæ_ above quoted; the correct appellation of the species is
therefore _Trichoglossus Australis_, Wagler.
The figures are of the natural size.
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