66



The late 0. E. Cressivell—Parrots



a brief account of the most marked and interesting races of Parrots

which inhabit each. That this account must be very superficial you

will readily grant when I tell you that the number of recorded species

of the Psittacidae, according to the British Museum catalogue, is

now 496, and that the number of those which are more or less known

as cage birds is over 100. Though I have disclaimed all attempts to

affect the scientific in this paper, I hope that this grouping is in no way

unscientific, for with one or two very slight exceptions there is no

confusion of the races which inhabit the different continents, no over¬

lapping of the areas of distribution.


I will at once state the exceptions which occur to me. Firstly,

many species of Cockatoos are found in the East Indies, others in

Australia and neighbouring islands. Secondly, in Africa there occur

some Ring-necked Green Parrakeets scarcely distinguishable from the

well-known Indian Ring-necked species. Such partial and rare excep¬

tions strongly prove the general rule which I have laid down.


The cradle of human origin and civilization is also the continent

on which in all probability Parrots were brought into captivity, centuries

before they were taken in Africa, and at least 2,000 years before the

discovery of the New World. The first mention of tame Parrots I do

not pretend to state. It has sometimes been thought that the birds

which the ships of King Solomon brought from Tarshish, and which

our version of the Bible translates Peacocks, were really Parrots. There

is little doubt that Alexander the Great imported to Europe Parrots

which he found in captivity in the East. One of the Indian Ring-necked

Parrakeets is still called the Alexandrine—probably the race which he

brought back, and that race alone was known to the Greek and Roman

worlds for ages afterwards—the little Green Ring-necked Bengal

Parrakeet. But I am anticipating, and had better first give you a rough

list of the Asiatic genera. The part of Asia inhabited by them includes

most of Hindustan, Burmah, the Malay Peninsula, and the great islands

of the Oriental Archipelago.


Let me first say a word about a common misapprehension. It is

not unnaturally supposed that a Parrakeet is the diminutive of a Parrot.

This, in fact, is not so, for many Parrakeets are larger than some Parrots.

Parrakeets are long-tailed, Parrots short-tailed.



