On a group of Psittacidx known to the Ancients, 43 



the most eminent poets. The well known Philippick of the elder 

 Cato against the luxury of his times, in which he particularly 

 declaims against the custom of carrying about these birds in pub- 

 lick, evinces the general favour in which they were held ; while 

 the high prices at which they were sometimes purchased, and the 

 costly materials of which their places of confinement were com- 

 posed,* demonstrate the high value which was set upon them. 

 It is not perhaps equally well known that the group, thus favoured 

 by antiquity, forms a detached division in the modern family of 

 Psittacidce ; and that any species belonging to it may at once be 

 detected in the largest assemblage of these birds, and distinguished 

 by strong generick characters from all the numerous species that 

 have been discovered in modern days. In the present sketch I 

 shall endeavour to point out these generick characters, the geo?- 

 graphical limits of the group, and the situation which it appears 

 to hold in the family. 



Yia,t reus ^oxs ek^i^x^^sv rccs yos^xs zxsnocs, 



¥Lxi '7r§ov(p£p Tov Aeovra, xxi avv^^yjniv iuy.ii, 

 Tara 'nore Bxcri'Kuos xicaa-xs t» o-r^aS/a 

 AaXavTor, xxi tov Asovrx ^s^ovros xvx o'ro/w.a,— 



(xxXxa-aEToct rvts aKkn^oyvui^ocrvy^s j 



A/Ja/AEvos-, W fo;x8j yifmtus irx^x t>3V (pvatv 

 Aa-vfAtrx^sarrs^Qs xvm (pxmro tS crr^a^/a." 



Const. Manass. Compend. Chron. p. 108. Ed. Paris. 1665. 



The word crr^H^os was originally used ^ov ?l sparrow ; but irr^H^iov was chiefly 

 synomymous with avicula as the diminutive or familiar name of a pet bird of 

 any kind : and there can be but little doubt that the CT^a^/ov fAsaiKoy of the 

 imperial palace was a Parrot. 



* We may form an idea of the splendour of their cages fron:\ the description 

 given of one by Statins. 



" At tibi quanta domus, rutila testudine fulgens, 



Connexusque ebori virgarum argenteus ordo, 



Argutumque tuo stridentia limina cornu, 



Et qucrulae jam sponte fores : vacat ille beatus 



Career.—" Sylv. L. II. 



