PLATYCERCUS FLAVEOLUS, Gouia.

Yellow-rumped Parrakeet.

Platycercus flaveolus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 26.

 

I nave no other information to communicate respecting this beautiful Platycercus, than that it is an inhabitant
of New South Wales, and is abundant on the banks of the rivers Lachlan and Darling. The bird was first
sent to this country by Captain Sturt some years since, when he presented a beautiful example with several
other rare birds to the Zoological Society of London. Since that period Major Sir Thomas L. Mitchell has
introduced several other specimens to England, and I am indebted to this gentleman for the only one in my
cabinet. I also saw in the Museum at Sydney several specimens of this little-known bird, which had been
collected by Sir Thomas during his expeditions to the Darling, &c. In all the specimens here mentioned
little or no variation in their plumage is observable—a circumstance, which induces me to suspect, that, like
the Rose-hill Parrakeet, the young are clothed in a similar character of plumage to the adults, or if not,
that they gain the full colouring at a very early age: the sexes offer no external differences.

Forehead crimson; cheeks light blue; crown of the head, back of the neck, back, rump, upper tail-
coverts, and all the under surface pale yellow, the feathers of the back being black in the centre and pale
yellow on their outer edges ; middle of the wing pale blue ; spurious wing and the outer web of the basal
portion of the primaries deep violet-blue, the remainder of the primaries dark brown; two central tail-
feathers tinted with green at the base, passing into blue towards the tip; the remaining feathers have the
basal portion of their outer webs deep blue, passing into very pale blue towards their tips; the inner webs
brown for a greater or less portion of their length, the extreme tips of all being white ; bill light horn-
colour; feet dark brown.

The Plate represents a male of the natural size.