Its natural food consists of seeds of various kinds, particularly those of different grasses, and occasionally of insects and caterpillars.
Its flight is short and undulating, and is rarely extended to a greater distance than a quarter of a mile, as the bird frequently alights on a leafless branch, always flying a little below it and rising again just before it settles.
Its note is a somewhat pleasing whistling sound, which is very frequently uttered.
The sexes are alike in plumage, and the young assume the bright colouring from the nest; the birds of the year, although they may have attained their full size, are not so brilliant as the adult, and may always be distinguished by the bill and nostrils being of a delicate gamboge-yellow.
Specimens from Van Diemen’s Land are rather larger in size, and have the markings of the upper surface of a greener yellow, and altogether less brilliant than those from New South Wales: I possess a specimen killed on Mosquito Island, at the mouth of the Hunter, which is more brilliant than any other I have yet seen.
Crown of the head, back of the neck, chest, and under tail-coverts scarlet; cheeks white; feathers of the back black, margined all round with rich yellow; rump, upper tail-coverts, and lower part of the belly pale green; centre of the belly yellow; shoulders and middle of the wing rich blue; external edges of the primaries blue, the remainder of these feathers dark brown; two middle tail feathers green, passing into bluish green at the tip, the remainder of the tail-feathers dark blue at the base, passing into light blue, and tipped with white; bill horn-colour; feet brown; irides blackish brown.
_J. Gould and H.C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ]
PLATYCERCUS SPLENDIDUS, _Gould_. Splendid Parrakeet.
_Platycercus splendidus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 105.
That the gradual investigation of the interior of Australia will lead to the discovery of many new and interesting objects, is proved by the recent acquisition of the lovely species here represented, which was killed by Mr. Gilbert in the newly-located district to the northward of the Darling Downs in New South Wales. In beauty it even exceeds the Rose-Hill Parrakeet, and is consequently one of the finest species of the genus yet discovered. It differs from that bird in having the centre of the breast only of a rich scarlet, the sides being gamboge-yellow; in the lower part of the abdomen and the upper tail-coverts being verditer instead of grass-green, and in the feathers of the back being broadly margined with rich gamboge instead of greenish yellow. In the youthful state it very much resembles the _P. palliceps_, from which however it differs in having the head yellow instead of pale yellowish white, and the breast yellow instead of pale blue; the breast also has indications of the rich scarlet of maturity, of which no trace is at any time perceptible in the _P. palliceps_.