Page:The Emu volume 21.djvu/275

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Vol. XXI 1922 ]
WHITLOCK, Notes from the Nullarbor Plain.
185

the trunk apart until the interior was fully visible. There were five young clothed in white down, with a few fine feathers showing on the wings of the first-hatched birds. By placing a forked strut against the trunk, I was able to restore things to their former condition. The male bird watched the proceedings from a neighbouring tree. This brood of young eventually got safely away. With one exception all the nests of the Naretha Parrot were in the hollow trunk of a tree, usually a living casuarina, The exception was a nest in a hollow limb of a bigger tree than the average.

Mr. Bert Cottrill, the station master at Naretha, accompanied me several times in my raids on the Parrots. According to his experience, they were more common around Naretha the present year than he had known before. Mr. Cottrill has been stationed in the neighbourhood for three years. My own impression is that the exceptional rains of May had brought down migrants from the north. Little is known how far the casuarinas extend in that direction. In any case, the range of the Naretha Parrot must be a restricted one. At the settlers' camp between Naretha and Zanthus it was known as an occasional visitor, but nests had seldom been found. To the east, the casuarinas cut out some seven miles away. Naretha is about 95 miles from the shores of the Bight. It is very questionable if the range extends so far to the south. An area therefore roughly 50 miles in width, and the same distance from Naretha to the south, with an unknown length to the north would comprise the probable range. Readers of The Emu will be familiar with the appearance of the Naretha Parrot now that it has been honoured with a coloured figure. A full description of the bird and also the eggs, and the circumstances which led to its discovery, contributed by Mr. H. L. White, accompany the plate (Emu, October, 1921).


Other Species.

In the gums at Zanthus the common Ring-necked Parrot was frequent. Mr. Gibson in his list calls this bird Barnardius semitorquatus. I made it out to be B. zonarius—the interior form. The under parts of the fully adult were lemon yellow, and only a trace of the red forehead-band was perceptible. Younger birds had the under parts boldly blotched with rich orange. Pairs were on the eve of nesting when I left Zanthus.

At my Boorara camp I occasionally saw pairs of the smaller Many-colored Parrakeet (Psephotus varius). I met with none at Zanthus, but at Naretha I saw a few pairs in company with the Naretha Parrot. All I saw had the yellow humeral patches. One or two had a peculiar bluish-green shade in the general appearance of their plumage. But this is a variable species. I found no nests, and think it is a much later breeder than the Naretha Parrot.

On the plain at Haig Parrots were naturally of rare occurrence. I met with only a few small parties of the well-known Betcherry-