Alan
Sorry but I have to correct you. There was once many in the Illawarra and
Gilbert and others collected them for Gould and other collectors in Europe.
If you go to my web site you can read the Illawarra summary for yourself and
see a shot of a specimen from Leiden museum in Germany., but here it is
anyway. The weblink is below.
"This species was described and named from specimen collected at Red Point,
Port Kembla, 1804. The species was a moderately common breeding resident in
the Illawarra in 1840s, though hunting, museum collecting and habitat
destruction rapidly reduced the local population thereafter. Last recorded
from Cambewarra Mountain in 1890 and at Mount Keira in 1920. Since then,
there have only been several unconfirmed observations which I record here
for completeness: Rhododendron Garden at Mt. Ousley in 1977; Macquarie Pass
in 1982; Farmborough Heights in 1982 and 1986; Mt. Kembla in 1994."
http://mail.speedlink.com.au/users/cchafer/bird_doc/book/book13/book13.html
cheers
Chris
|