arge gum-tree for the purpose ; making no nest, but depo-
one inch and five lines

September, and generally selects a hole in a | ‘i
siting its beautiful pearl-white eggs, which are one inch ae nine lines long by mon 2 :
broad, on the decomposed wood at the bottom of the hole. When there are young ones in it, it defends its
breeding-place with great courage and daring, darting down aoa intruder who may attempt to ascend
the tree, and inflicting severe and dangerous blows with its pointed bill.

difference in the colouring of their plumage, that they are scarcely distin-

The sexes present so little Ne
7 < y oe: ‘ aw ‘ 7 ores TOP: 7
guishable from each other; neither do the young at a month old exhibit any great variation from the adult,

the only difference being that the markings are somewhat darker and the brown more generally diffused.

It bears confinement remarkably well, and is one of the most amusing birds for the aviary with which I
am acquainted: examples have been brought alive to England ; one te for several ee ae the Gardens
of the Zoological Society of London, and at the moment I am writing (April 1843) a fine individual brought
from New South Wales by Mr. Yaldwyn, 1s now living at his seat at Blackdown in Sussex, where it attracts
the attention of every one by its singular actions and extraordinary notes, which are poured forth as freely
as in its native wilds.

Forehead brown, each feather with a stripe of blackish brown down the centre; crown of the head,
lores, ear-coverts, and a broad band passing round the occiput blackish brown; space between the crown
of the head and the band encircling the occiput, and the back of the neck buff, crossed by fine irregular
lines of dark brown; back and wings brownish black; the wing-coverts and rump tipped with verditer |
green; primaries white at the base, black for the remainder of their length, and stained with green on their
outer margins immediately behind the white ; upper tail-coverts blackish brown, crossed by several broad
irregular bands of rusty red; tail brownish black, tipped with white, the white increasing in extent as the
feathers recede from the centre; the central feathers crossed near the tip with rusty red; the lateral
feathers with brownish black, the bands being very narrow near the tip, and gradually increasing in breadth
as they approach the base, where the white interspaces also become tinged with rusty red; under surface
pale buffy white, crossed by fine irregular freckled markings of dark brown; upper mandible brownish
black; under mandible pale buff; feet olive ; irides dark brown; eyelash olive-brown,

The figures represent a male and two young of the natural size.