Glimpses of Paradise: The Quest for the Beautiful Parrakeet

Published by the National Library of Australia. Glimpses of Paradise: The Quest for the Beautiful Parrakeet follows the story of the Paradise Parrot, beginning in 1844, when John Gilbert spotted it on the Condamine River in Queensland. Gilbert wrote to his employer John Gould, in London, describing his find as "without exception the most beautiful of the whole tribe I have ever seen in Australia". Gould named it the Beautiful Parrakeet. But squatters had already begun to claim the parrot's country and by the 1890s the parakeet had disappeared from the record.Ornithologist and journalist Alec Chisholm believed that the bird, then known as the Paradise Parrot, still survived. In 1918, he launched a search. In 1922, the first and last photographs of the parrot were taken and the last confirmed observation was in 1928 - yet claims of sightings continue.In this highly illustrated and informative book, author Penny Olsen takes us on a journey of discovery. The story of the Beautiful Parrakeet - the jewel of the parrot family - is one that combines elements of natural history, human curiosity for the rare and unobtainable, and the true facts of the mystery surrounding the bird"s fate.