78 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 



clined to place the black parrots of Madagascar, 

 known by the name of Vasa. This division is con- 

 sidered as analogous to the fissirostrai tribe of the 

 Insessores. 



By Buffon, and other naturalists of an early date, 

 the geographical distribution of the parrots was sup- 

 posed to be confined to the sultry climates wi'.hin 

 the Tropics. The discoveries made during the va- 

 rious scientific voyages which have since explored 

 the globe, and the keen research that of late years 

 has been instituted in pursuit of objects of natural 

 history, have, however, shewn that it is much wider 

 in extent, particularly in the southern hemisphere, 

 where species have been found in latitudes as high 

 as 50, examples having been discovered and brought 

 from the Straits of Magellan. In the northern he- 

 misphere, the limit appears to be more restricted, as 

 the Carolina parrakeet of North America, and some 

 few African species, are seldom seen beyond the 32d 

 or 33d degrees. The Equatorial Regions must, how- 

 ever, be considered the metropolis of the family, as 

 it is in them that the greatest variety of genera are 

 met with, the species which inhabit the higher or 

 colder latitudes, though numerous, belonging to a 

 very limited number of generic forms. In the ma- 

 jority of this family, we find a plumage which, for 

 richness and variety of colour, yields to few of the 

 feathered race ; and though, like the tulip among 

 flowers, it may by some be thought gaudy, and com- 

 posed of colours too violently and abruptly contrast- 



