The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay: With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789)Phillip, Arthur
History
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay: With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789)
Phillip, Arthur
Natural history -- Australia -- New South Wales; New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Norfolk Island
Size of the scarlet lory, length sixteen inches: the bill of a blueish
horn colour; the general colour of the plumage scarlet; the base of the
under mandible and the chin covered with rich blue feathers: the back
black, the feathers edged with crimson: wings blue, down the middle much
paler than the rest: the quills and tail black, the feathers edged
outwardly with blue, and three of the outer tail feathers, from the
middle to the end, of a pale hoary blue: the tail is wedge shaped, the
middle feathers eight inches in length; the outermost, or shortest, only
four: the bottom of the thighs blue, legs dusky, claws black.
This beautiful bird is not unfrequent about Port Jackson, and seems to
correspond greatly with the Pennantian Parrot, described by Mr. Latham in
the supplement to his General Synopsis of Birds, p. 61. differing in so
few particulars, as to make us suppose it to differ only in sex from that
species.
PACIFIC PAROQUET. Order and Genus the same. Species L VI. A new variety.
Mr. Latham's description is this:
"Length twelve inches, bill of a silvery blue; end black: in some, the
forehead and half the crown; in others, the forehead only, of a deep
crimson: behind each eye a spot of the same colour: on each side of the
vent a patch of the same: the plumage in general of a dark green, palest
on the under parts: the tail is cunei-form; the two middle feathers are
five inches and an half in length; the outer ones two inches and an half;
upper parts of it the same green with the body; beneath ash colour: the
outer edge of the wings, as far as the middle of the quills, deep blue;
the ends of the quills dusky: legs brown: claws black." Latham's Synopsis,
vol. I. p. 252.
The variety here represented has a brown bill, tinged with red at the
end, and a cap of azure blue at the back of the head, interspersed with a
few small feathers of a yellowish green; the top of the wings is of a
yellow hue, and there are no blue feathers in the wings.
THE SACRED KING'S FISHER. Order of Birds II. Pies. Genus XXIII. Species 12.
The following description is extracted from Mr. Latham's Synopsis of
Birds, vol. ii. p. 623. The specimen here represented, being the same as
his fourth variety of that species marked D.
"This in size is rather less than a blackbird: the bill is black; the
lower mandible yellowish at the base: head, back, wings, and tail, blue
tinged with green: the under parts of the body white, extending round the
middle of the neck like a collar: legs blackish."
To which account we may add, that the bill is very strong at the base,
and sharp at the point; that the feathers immediately above the bill are
tinged with yellow; and that the toes, as in most of this species, are
three before and one behind.
SUPERB WARBLER, MALE. Birds, Order III. Passerine. Genus XLI. Warbler.
Species 137. A new variety.
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