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.