41 PSITTACID^E. 



p. 113 ; Durnford, Ibis, 1877, p. 186 (Buenos Ayres) ; Gibson, Ibis, 1880, 

 p. 3 (Buenos Ayres) ; White, P. Z. 8. 1882, p. 621 (Catamarca, Santiago 

 del Estero) ; Barrows, Auk, 1884, p. 28 (Entrerios) ; Burm. P. Z. S. 1878, 

 p. 77. 



Description. Green ; front grey, with paler margins to the feathers ; wings 

 blackish, with slight" bluish edgings : beneath grey, with lighter margins to the 

 breast-feathers ; under wing-coverts, flanks, and crissum pale green ; bill 

 whitish : whole length 11-0 inches, wing 5'5, tail 5*3. Female similar. 



Hab. Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. 



The Common Green Parrakeet, called Cotorra or Catita in the ver- 

 nacular, is a well-known resident species in the Argentine Republic. 

 It is a lively restless bird, shrill-voiced, and exceedingly vociferous, 

 living and breeding in large communities, and though it cannot learn 

 to speak so distinctly as some of the larger Parrots, it is impossible to 

 observe its habits without being convinced that it shares in the intelli- 

 gence of the highly-favoured order to which it belongs. 



In Buenos Ayres it was formerly very much more numerous than it 

 is now ; but it is exceedingly tenacious of its breeding-places, and there 

 are some few favoured localities where it still exists in large colonies, 

 in spite of the cruel persecution all birds easily killed are subjected 

 to in a country where laws relating to such matters are little regarded, 

 and where the agricultural population is chiefly Italian. At Mr. 

 Gibson's residence near Cape San Antonio, on tbe Atlantic coast, there 

 is still a large colony of these birds inhabiting the Tala woods (Celtis 

 tald), and I take the following facts from one of his papers on the 

 ornithology of the district. 



He describes the woods as being full of their nests, with their bright- 

 coloured talkative denizens and their noisy chatter all day long drowning 

 every other sound. They are extremely sociable and breed in com- 

 munities. When a person enters the wood their subdued chatter 

 suddenly ceases, and during the ominous silence a hundred pairs of 

 black beady eyes survey the intruder from the nests and branches ; and 

 then follows a whirring of wings and an outburst of screams that spreads 

 the alarm throughout the woods. The nests are frequented all the 

 year, and it is rare to find a large one unattended by some of the birds 

 any time during the day. In summer and autumn they feed principally 

 on the thistle ; first the flower is cut up and pulled to pieces for the 

 sake of the green kernel, and later they eat the fallen seed on the 

 ground. Their flight is rapid, with quick flutters of the wings, which 

 seem never to be raised to the level of the body. They pay no regard 

 to a Polyborus or Milvago, but mob any other bird of prey appearing 



