beautiful productions of the island would be passed by unheeded, except to deal out destruction among them, with no sparing hand, for some slight injury they may have inflicted upon the rising corn. The above remarks refer more particularly to Van Diemen’s Land, but apply with equal force to New South Wales, where the bird inhabits all situations similar in character to those above referred to. It breeds in great abundance in Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales; it is found in great numbers in the district of the Upper Hunter, and was formerly very numerous at Paramatta, particularly in the neighbourhood of Rose Hill, whence its name. It lays from seven to ten beautiful white eggs in the hollow of a gum-tree during October and the three following months; they are one inch and an eighth long by seven-eighths of an inch broad. Its natural food consists of seeds of various kinds, particularly those of different grasses, and occasionally of insects and caterpillars. Its flight is short and undulating, and is rarely extended to a greater distance than a quarter of a mile, as the bird frequently alights on a leafless branch, always flying a little below it and rising again just before it settles. Its note is a somewhat pleasing whistling sound, which is very frequently uttered. The sexes are alike in plumage, and the young assume the bright colouring from the nest; the birds of the year, although they may have attained their full size, are not so brilliant as the adult, and may always be distinguished by the bill and nostrils being of a delicate gamboge-yellow. Specimens from Van Diemen’s Land are rather larger in size, and have the markings of the upper surface of a greener yellow, and altogether less brilliant than those from New South Wales: I possess a specimen killed on Mosquito Island, at the mouth of the Hunter, which is more brilliant than any other I have yet seen. Crown of the head, back of the neck, chest, and under tail-coverts scarlet; cheeks white; feathers of the back black, margined all round with rich yellow; rump, upper tail-coverts, and lower part of the belly pale green; centre of the belly yellow; shoulders and middle of the wing rich blue; external edges of the primaries blue, the remainder of these feathers dark brown; two middle tail feathers green, passing into bluish green at the tip, the remainder of the tail-feathers dark blue at the base, passing into light blue, and tipped with white; bill horn-colour; feet brown; irides blackish brown. The figures are of the natural size. [Illustration: PLATYCERCUS SPLENDIDUS: _Gould_. _J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ] PLATYCERCUS SPLENDIDUS, _Gould_. Splendid Parrakeet. _Platycercus splendidus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 105.