Its powers of flight are very considerable, and it readily passes from one district to another whenever a scarcity of food or any other cause prompts it so to do; the passage being performed in a succession of wide undulating sweeps; hence it not unfrequently happens that large flights leave the forest with a shrill whistling call, and descend to the newly ripened corn of the settlers, and there commit such serious havoc as to call down the vengeance of the farmer on the whole race.
Most of my readers are doubtless aware that Parrots are frequently eaten by man, but few of them are, perhaps, prepared to hear that many species of the family constitute at certain seasons a staple portion of the food of the settlers: soon after the establishment of the colonies of Van Diemen’s Land, pies made of the bird here represented were commonly eaten at every table, and even at the present time are not of unfrequent occurrence. It was not long after my arrival in the country before I tested the goodness of the flesh of this bird as a viand, and I found it so excellent that I partook of it whenever an opportunity for my so doing presented itself. It is delicate, tender, and well-flavoured; but, like that of all other birds, is not so good at some seasons as at others, and very old birds are of course not equal to those of one year old. If we take into consideration the kind of food upon which it subsists, the extreme delicacy and fineness of its skin, and its comparatively inactive mode of life, we might naturally conclude that its flesh would be such as I have described it to be; and although this observation applies more or less to all the species of the genera _Platycercus_ and _Euphema_, I consider the present bird to be in this respect preeminent.
Like other species of the genus, it bears confinement well; and although it is not so frequently met with in the cage or the aviary as some of its more gaily attired brethren, it must not be attributed to any inaptitude for domestication on the part of the bird.
The sexes during the first year are not to be distinguished from each other, but when fully adult, the female is smaller in size and less brilliantly coloured than her mate.