THE PARRAKEETS AND LORIES. 



The genus Pal(eornk of Vigors has the bill rather thick, the culmcn of the I'lppcr 

 mandible rounded, the lower broad and short. The middle feathers of the tail are 

 greatly lengthened. The most anciently known of the parrot race belong to this 

 genus, such as the Alexandrine parrakeet and other long-tailed species, distinguished by 

 their elegance of form, their ruby-coloured bills, their semicircled necks, and the rich 

 verdure of their plumage. The one just named is a native of India and Ceylon, and 

 derives its designation from the fact, real or supposed, of its having been first transported 

 from Asiatic countries by Alexander the Great. Its most distinguishing characters 

 consist in the broad black patch which occupies the fore-part of the throat, and extends 

 laterally in two narrow processes on each side of the neck ; a black line stretches from 

 the ba.-5e of the beak to the eyes, and there is a deep purplish-rod patch at the base of the 

 wino-s. Its bill is larger than that of the rose-coloured parrakeet,* which, however, it 

 greatly resembles in its general aspect. 



The last-named species is widely spread over India, and as far eastward as Manilla. 

 It appears, indeed, to be identical with another species extremely abundant on the 

 African coasts, and well known in France under the title oi ^ierrmhc de Senegal. In so 

 far as any conclusions can be drawn from the vague and brief descriptions handed down 

 bv ancient writers, it would appear that this species was, as it still continues to be, more 

 frequent in the days of antiquity than any of its congeners. No allusion is made by 

 these authors to those specific marks by which the Alexandrine parrakeet is so clearly 

 distinguished, and the general description applies yery closely to the rose-necked kind. 

 That the latter was extensively known, and held in high esteem on account of the 

 brilliancy of its plumage, the docility of its manners, and its successful imitative powers, 

 is proved by the innumerable jiassages in the classical writers of antiquity, more especially 

 from the earliest times of the Roman empire to a very late period of its annals. 



The Alexandrine parrot is generally supposed to have been brought to Europe from 

 the island of Ceylon, the ancient Taprobane. In the reign of Nero, the Romans intro- 

 duced other species from diflS'orcnt quarters of Africa. They were highly jirized by that 

 luxurious people, who lodged them in superb cages of silver, ivory, aud tortoiseshell ; 

 and the price of a parrot in those daj^s frequently exceeded that of a slave. Nor did 

 Ovid think it beneath him to write a lengthened elegy on the death of Corinna's 

 favourite, a bird which, in the love it bore its mistress, seems to have emulated that of 

 the dying Greek for his country : 



" Clamavit moriens lingua, Covinna." — Vak. 



THE BLUE- BELLIED PitRRAKEET.f 



In the same group is generally included that bcautifid aud richly-varied species from 

 the Molucca Islands, of which the name has just been given. Its tongue, in common 

 with that of several New Holland parrakeets, is finely ciliated at the tip on either side. 

 Hence the formation in their i'u\()ur of i\Ir. Vigors's genus, Trir/io;//o--<.-<its. "N'aillant, 

 during his residence at the Cape, had an opportunity of studying the manners of a pair 

 of the species just named, which had been imported from Amljoyna. They bred during 

 their confinement in the menagerie of M. Van Uletemberg, then governor of the Cape. 



• Ps. Toiquatus. t ^»- C'yaiiojfastcr.— Slmw, 



