As of Melopsittacus, there is only one species known of this genus. It is strictly Australian, and will doubtless hereafter be found to be universally distributed over that vast country; it is equally adapted for the plains, and the two birds are frequently found associated.
| 406. Nymphicus Novæ-Hollandiæ | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 45. |
There are two distinct varieties of this species, one having a much darker colouring than the other.
Genus Pezoporus, Ill.
Of this terrestrial form but one species is known, which is very generally distributed over the temperate portions of Australia, the islands in Bass’s Straits and Van Diemen’s Land. The eggs are laid on the bare ground.
| 407. Pezoporus formosus | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 46. |
Genus Lathamus, Less.
Of this form only a single species is known to exist in Australia, and that species had been assigned to a different genus by almost every recent writer on ornithology, Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield placing it in their genus Nanodes, Wagler in his genus Euphema, &c.; subsequently M. Lesson made it the type of his genus Lathamus, giving it at the same time the specific appellation of rubrifrons, which must of course give place to that of discolor, long before applied to it by Latham.
Having had ample opportunities of observing this bird in a state of nature, I concur in the propriety of M. Lesson’s views in separating it into a distinct genus; at the same time I must remark that in its habits, nidification, food and whole economy, it is most closely allied to the Trichoglossi or honey-eating Parrakeets, and in no degree related to the Euphemæ.
| 408. Lathamus discolor | [Vol. V. ] Pl. 47. |