_Lathamus pusillus_, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 206.
_Jerryang_, Aborigines of New South Wales.
This familiar species, the least of the Australian _Psittacidæ_ yet
discovered, enjoys a range of habitat precisely similar to that of the
_Trichoglossus concinnus_, being dispersed over the whole of New South
Wales, South Australia and Van Diemen’s Land; it is, however, more
sparingly diffused over the latter country. I found it tolerably
abundant and killed several specimens on Maria Island, near the entrance
of Storm Bay. On the continent of Australia it is not only to be found
in the same districts and at the same seasons of the year as _T.
concinnus_, but it is more frequently observed in company with that
species than alone; flocks of each often occupying the same tree, and
even the same branch, all busily engaged in extracting their nectarine
food. Like its near ally, the present bird creeps about under and among
the leaves with the greatest facility, and like the other members of the
group, appears to be always associated in pairs. As might be expected
from the structure of its wing, which is admirably adapted for rapid
progression, it flies through the air with arrow-like swiftness.
I succeeded in finding the breeding-places of this species, and on the
11th of October 1839, procured four eggs from a hole in a small branch
of a lofty _Eucalyptus_, growing on the flats at Yarrundi on the Upper
Hunter. The eggs were white and of an oval form, nine lines and a half
long by seven lines and a half broad.
In Western Australia this species is represented by the _Trichoglossus
porphyrocephalus_, and on the north coast by the _T. versicolor_. It
would appear to inosculate with its western ally in South Australia,
both being equally numerous there, around, and even upon the trees
within the city of Adelaide.
The sexes are similar in plumage and differ but little in size; the
female is, however, rather more diminutive than her mate.
Face deep red; back of the neck brown; all the remainder of the plumage
grass-green; primaries, secondaries and greater coverts black, margined
externally with grass-green; two centre tail-feathers and outer webs of
the remainder grass-green; the inner webs of the lateral feathers fine
red at the base, passing into greenish yellow towards the tip; bill
black; cere and orbits dark olive-brown; irides orange, surrounded by a
narrow line of yellow.
The figures are of the natural size.
[Illustration:
PTILINOPUS SWAINSONII: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H.C. Richter del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
PTILINOPUS SWAINSONII, _Gould_.
Swainson’s Fruit Pigeon.
_Ptilinopus purpuratus_, var. Regina, Swains. Zool. Journ., vol. i. p.
474?
_Columba purpurata_, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pl. 70.
_Ptilinopus Swainsonii_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 8,
1842.
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