Forehead red; crown, cheeks, chest, abdomen, central portion of wing, and rump verditer green; occiput crossed by a band of brown, succeeded by a crescent-shaped mark of yellow; back bluish grey; centre of the abdomen crossed by a broad crescent of orange; primaries and spurious wing black; the external margin of each feather, and the tip of the shoulder rich deep blue; two central tail-feathers deep green, passing into deep blue at the tip; the lateral feathers deep blue at the base, gradually fading into bluish white at the tip; bill horn-colour; feet brown. The Plate represents the two sexes about the natural size. [Illustration: PLATYCERCUS ADELAIDIÆ: _Gould_. _J. & E. Gould del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] PLATYCERCUS ADELAIDIÆ, _Gould_. Adelaide Parrakeet. _Platycercus Adelaidiæ_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 163. _Pheasant Parrot_, Colonists of South Australia. This beautiful _Platycercus_ is a native of South Australia, and from the circumstance of my having procured some of my finest specimens in the very streets of that embryo city, I have been induced to give it the specific name of _Adelaidiæ_. In all probability the bird may in a few years be looked for in vain in the suburbs of this rapidly increasing settlement, as it is too large a species and possesses too many attractions to remain unmolested; indeed it is even now much persecuted and destroyed by the newly-arrived emigrants, who kill it either for mere sport or for the table; for, like the other _Platycerci_, all of which feed on grass-seeds, it is excellent eating. The _Platycercus Adelaidiæ_ at first caused me considerable perplexity from its close similarity in some stages of its plumage to the _P. Pennantii_; as in that species the plumage of the young for the first season is wholly green, which colouring gradually gives place to red on the head, rump, and upper surface, the scapularies and back feathers being margined with the same hue, a character of plumage which soon disappears and gives place to dull yellow on the flanks and olive-yellow on the upper surface, the scapularies and back feathers in the mature dress being edged with yellowish buff and violet. It was only by killing at least a hundred examples in all their various stages of plumage, from the nestling to the adult, that I was enabled to determine the fact of its being a new and distinct species. In all its dimensions it is less than the Pennantian.