PLATYCERCUS PILEATUS: Vig.
J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
PLATYCERCUS PILEATUS, Vig.
Red-capped Parrakeet.
Platycercus pileatus, Vig. in Zool. Journ., vol. v. p. 274.—Lear’s Ill. Psitt., pls. 21 and 22.—Wagl. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand., pp. 491 and 528.
Psittacus purpureocephalus, Quoy et Gaim. Voy. de l’Astrolabe, pl. 22.
Djȁr-rail-bȕr-tang, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
Blue Parrot of the Colonists.
The Platycercus pileatus differs so much in the colouring of its plumage from every other species of the great family of Parrots, as to render it one of the most remarkable yet discovered; in the form and structure of its bill there is also a remarkable deviation from the true Platycerci, and it will probably be hereafter found that this modification of its form is adapted to some especial purpose, in which case this bird might with propriety constitute the type of a separate genus; in the absence, however, of all information respecting its habits and economy, I prefer retaining it in the genus in which it was placed by Mr. Vigors, its first describer.
The Red-capped Parrakeet is an inhabitant of Western Australia, where it is rather numerously dispersed over the country from King George’s Sound to the northern limits of the colony. It is usually seen in small families feeding on the ground, but upon what particular kind of food it subsists has not been ascertained. The breeding-season extends over the months of October, November and December. The hollow dead branch of a gum- or mahogany-tree is the place usually chosen by the female for the reception of her eggs, which are milk-white and from seven to nine in number, about an inch and an eighth long by seven-eighths of an inch broad. The young during the first year of their existence are of nearly uniform green; at the same time, the hues which characterize the adult are perceptible at almost any age.
The females are never so finely marked as the males, neither are they so large or so gracefully formed.