THE AMERICAN SHARP-TAILED PARROTS 1883 



The gray-breasted parraqtiet (Myopsittaciis monachus) belongs to 

 S ^p '* a g rou P f genera, distinguished from the three preceding ones by the 



bony ring round the eye being incomplete; this particular genus being 

 characterized by the beak being rather swollen at the sides and rounded above, as 

 well as by the tufted oil gland, and the concealment of the nostrils by the forward 

 projection of the feathers at the base of the beak. The general color of this 

 parrot is green, with the upper part of the head, lores, cheeks, throat, and breast 

 gray; the under parts yellowish green, and the primary feathers and wing coverts 

 blue, edged with green on their outer webs. The bill is reddish white, the iris 

 brown, and the foot gray. The total length of the bird is eleven and a half inches. 

 It is a native of Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. The most interesting 

 point in connection with this parrot is its habit of building nests in trees, 

 whereby it differs from all other members of the order, our illustration repre- 

 senting one of these nests built by a pair in captivity in one corner of their 

 cage. Darwin states that these birds in Parana select tall trees in which to 

 build, and that a number of nests are placed so close together as to form one 

 great mass of sticks. They always associate in immense flocks, and commit 

 great ravages on the corn crops. On this account they are much persecuted by 

 the inhabitants, Darwin relating that as many as two thousand five hundred of 

 these birds were killed near Colonia in the course of a year. In some districts the 

 nests are constructed in the trees growing in swamps, and attain a huge size, each 

 nest generally having several entrances, and being frequented by two or three 

 pairs of birds. On this account the name of swamp parrot is frequently applied to 

 the species. From observations made on captive specimens, it appears that although 

 the cock aids in building the nest, the work of incubation is performed by the hen 

 alone, the usual number of eggs being two. 



Nearly allied to this species are several South- American parrots constituting 

 the genus Bolborhynchus, distinguished from the one under consideration by the 

 nostrils being exposed and opening in a much swollen cere, from which the name of 

 the genus is derived. These parrots range from Mexico to Northern Chili and the 

 Argentine, a well-known species being the Aymara parraquet (B. aymara). 



The smallest representatives of this subfamity are the pretty little 



green and blue birds, which may be termed, from their Latin name, 

 parrotlets, and occupy a position in this section analogous to that held by the love 

 birds in the parraquet group. The largest of these parrotlets is only five and one- 

 half inches in length, while none of the others exceed five inches. They differ 

 from all the other members of the subfamily in the relative shortness of their tails, 

 and also in that the two sexes are unlike, while their skeletons are distinguished by 

 the absence of the furcula. They range from Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil, and 

 are divided into three groups, according to the color of the rump in the male. In 

 the first group, as represented by the blue-winged parrotlet (Psittacula passerina), 

 the rump is ultramarine blue; in the second (P. speugeli] it is turquoise, and in 

 the third (P. guianensis) green. We may remark here that the reader will scarcely 

 fail to notice what a number of members of the parrot tribe are restricted to the 

 Southern Hemisphere, where they are especially numerous in South America, 



