This beautiful Lorikeet, so familiar to every ornithologist, has been for many years confounded with two other nearly allied species, and hence has arisen an almost inexplicable mass of confusion respecting them; their true synonymies have, however, been most ably worked out by Mr. Swainson in a paper sent by him to Sir William Jardine and Mr. Selby for insertion in their “Illustrations of Ornithology,” wherein those gentlemen, fully satisfied of the justness of Mr. Swainson’s observations, took an opportunity of naming this species _Swainsonii_, a tribute to the talents of that naturalist in which I most cordially participate. The present bird, so far as is yet known, is almost exclusively an inhabitant of the south-eastern portion of the Australian continent lying between South Australia and Moreton Bay, at least I have never heard of its existence in any part westward of the former or northward of the latter. It also occurs in Van Diemen’s Land, but its visits to that island do not appear to be either regular or frequent. The flowers of the various species of _Eucalypti_ furnish this bird with an abundant supply of food, and so exclusively is it confined to the forests composed of those trees, that I do not recollect to have met with it in any other. It also evinces a preference for those that are covered with newly expanded blossoms, which afford them the greatest supply of nectarine juice and pollen, upon which they principally subsist. However graphically it might be described, I scarcely believe it possible to convey an idea of the appearance of a forest of flowering gums tenanted by several species of _Trichoglossi_, _Meliphagi_, &c.; three or four species being frequently seen on the same tree, and often simultaneously attacking the pendent blossoms of the same branch. The incessant din produced by their thousand voices, and the screaming notes they emit, when a flock of either species simultaneously leave the trees for some other part of the forest, baffles all description, and must be seen and heard to be fully comprehended. So intent are the _Trichoglossi_ for some time after sunrise upon extracting their honey-food, that they are not easily alarmed or made to quit the trees upon which they are feeding. The report of a gun discharged immediately beneath them has no other effect than to elicit an extra scream, or cause them to move to a neighbouring branch, where they again recommence feeding with all the avidity possible, creeping among the leaves and clinging beneath the branches in every variety of position. During one of my morning rambles in the brushes of the Hunter I came suddenly upon an immense _Eucalyptus_, which was at least two hundred feet high. The blossoms of this noble tree had attracted hundreds of birds, both Parrots and Honey-suckers; and from a single branch I killed the four species of _Trichoglossi_ inhabiting the district, viz. _T. Swainsonii_, _chlorolepidotus_, _concinnus_ and _pusillus_.