Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

Crested Parakeets

Still within the limits of the half a dozen genera above mentioned is the genus Nymphicus, which is distinguished by the presence of a well-defined crest, a feature which is unique within the group of Parakeets.

The two known species are confined to New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, the one from the first-mentioned locality (N. cornutus) having a crest of only two feathers which are black, tipped with red, in addition to which there is a yellow collar, red forehead, and black face; the length is fourteen inches.

In the Uvsean species (N. uvaensis) of the last-mentioned locality, the crest consists of six feathers which curve forward at the tips, the color being dark green, while there is no nuchal collar, and the face is dark green. With a brief account of the two genera in which the tail is crossed from base to tip by alternate light and dark bands, we may close our notice of this interesting group. The first of these (Pezoporus) is further distinguished by having the tail long, much longer in fact than the wing, and nails long and slender, its best-known member being the Common Ground Parakeet (P. terrestris) of South and West Australia and Tasmania.

It is about twelve and a half inches long, of which the tail takes up nearly eight inches, the general color being green, with the forehead crossed by a band of dark orange, and the remainder of the upper parts crossed feather by feather by irregular bands of black and yellow, while the breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts are greenish yellow with numerous blackish bands; the four central tail-feathers are green, with narrow bands of yellow. The Ground Parakeet is a very peculiar bird, being entirely terrestrial in its habits, and seemingly having lost the power of perching on trees or bushes. According to Gould:

“It usually frequents either sandy sterile districts covered with tufts of rank grass and herbage, or low, swampy flats abounding with rushes and other kinds of vegetation peculiar to such situations. From its very recluse habits and great powers of running it is seldom or never seen until it is flushed and then only for a short time, as it soon pitches again and runs off to a place of seclusion. On the approach of danger it crouches on the earth or runs stealthily through the grasses. It flies with great rapidity, frequently making several zigzag turns in the short distance of a hundred yards, which it seldom exceeds without again pitching to the ground. Its flesh is excellent, being delicate in flavor and equaling, if not surpassing, that of the Quail or Snipe. Its four or five white eggs are deposited on the bare ground,”usually under a dense tuft of grass. In many places where this species was formerly abundant it has now entirely disappeared, owing to the fact that the morasses have been reclaimed and the drier open land broken up by cultivation.

 

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