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.