PARROT. 



391 



ertod with more than ordinary vigour, there is al- 

 ways some flexibility provided in its base by pecu- 

 liarly shaped bones, the cartilaginous substances of 

 which slide upon each other by cartilage or liga- 

 ment, which confines the shock to the single organ, 

 and prevents it from being so propagated as to affect 

 the vital parts of the animal. This is a provision of 

 Nature which mankind would do well to imitate as 

 far as possible in all those machines which work with 

 great power, in order to prevent the machine from 

 being shaken to pieces by the violence of its own 

 working, which can be much better done in this way 

 than by any addition of mere mechanical strength. 



Some of the family, which live more habitually 

 on the ground than the typical parrots, have not the 

 bill of the same large size or powerful construction ; 

 and these are understood to feed, in great part 

 at least, upon succulent and bulbous roots. They 

 still have the feet zygodactylic, a character which is 

 not departed from in any of the family ; but they have 

 much less motion of the joints by which the lower 

 end of the tarsus is articulated to the toes than the 

 climbing parrots have. In these this articulation is 

 so loose, that when the birds attempt to walk on a 

 level surface, the foot is so much turned out, that the 

 tarsus appears to be applied to the inner edge of it, 

 and not to the upper side as it is in those birds which 

 are more characteristic walkers. This turn outwards 

 in the foot is eminently characteristic of a climbing 

 instrument ; forwe meet with it in all the ape and mon- 

 key tribes ; and the joint is always the looser and more 

 oblique, the more constant the climbing habit is 

 in the owner. This of course enables the animal to 

 have a much greater range in the action of the pre- 

 hensile part of the organ, than if the joint were firm, 

 because, by means of it the foot can be turned in a 

 greater number of directions, and especially laterally 

 outwards, which is the most favourable direction for 

 the foot of a bird which scrambles among the branches. 

 The ground parrots, which are rarely if ever upon 

 trees, have feet of a different construction. In them 

 the tarsi are much longer in proportion, and the arti- 

 culations of the toes together are firmer. They are 

 also much more slender in proportion to the weight 

 of the birds, and neither the muscles which give 

 motion to the toes, nor the connecting tendons by 

 means of which the action of those muscles is carried 

 to its proper place, are nearly so powerful. So much 

 power is not indeed required ; for the ground parrot 

 has only to walk, whereas the tree parrot has often to 

 suspend itself in all positions by a single foot, often by 

 a single toe, and to perform many operations in seek- 

 ing its i'ood while it hangs in these positions. It is 

 impossible to avoid admiring the admirable perfection 

 with which in these case?, and, indeed, in every case 

 where we have the means of observing, the degree of 

 power in an instrument is adapted to the necessity 

 that there is for this power, no matter how fine the 

 shade of distinction and habit may be ; for we 

 find that the shades of adaptation are always equal 

 to it. It would be endless, however, to point 

 out all the peculiarities of a race of birds which are so 

 varied in their forms and their manners, though so 

 constant to their general type, and of which all the 

 members are equally well adapted to the places which 

 they hold in nature. Those who have examined the 

 tropical forests, mention that there appears to be a 

 species of parrot adapted for each of the more con- 

 spicuous kinds of trees which are to be met with in 

 those forests. Thus, if the tree is a palm, or any 



thing else which has a single stem, and can afford 

 nourishment for a bird only at or near the top of that 

 stem, then the species of parrot set over it to con- 

 sume the surplus of its fruit, is an air bird, capable of 

 flying over the forest in search of such trees ; and 

 when such is the case, the body of the bird is lighter 

 iu proportion to its lineal dimensions, and its tail is 

 generally very much produced, which assists it in 

 ascending and descending. On the other hand, the 

 short-flighted parrots, which inhabit trees which are 

 very much branched, and bear fruit in the axilla? of 

 the leaves of the smaller twigs, have the bodies 

 stouter in proportion to the dimensions, the tail shorter, 

 and the feathers more firm and scaly. Parrots of this 

 last description inhabit regions which are more peren- 

 nially fertile than those inhabited by the former, 

 whose more produced flying feathers and lighter 

 bodies, and, generally speaking, also their more vigour- 

 ous make, fit them better for ranging into a new loca- 

 lity when food fails them in the old one, and also for 

 making daily excursions of considerable length over 

 the fields in the vicinity of those trees wherein they 

 roost during the night. It is these discursive ones 

 which are most destructive to plantations in the 

 neighbourhood of the woods ; and as they invariably 

 make their excursions in large flocks, and destroy 

 much more than they eat, their visits are always pecu- 

 liarly annoying to the planters. We shall hereafter 

 have occasion to allude to some of the species which 

 are troublesome in this way. The tree parrots with short 

 tails, which are the characteristic ones, are also those 

 that can be taught to articulate words in the greatest 

 number, and with most distinctness. Their range on 

 the wing is considerably more limited than that of the 

 long feathered ones ; but still, though their flights are 

 usually short, their wings are powerful. The wing of 

 no parrot is, however, constructed after that fashion 

 by which a bird can be kept in the atmosphere for a 

 very great length of time. In order that a wing may 

 be adapted in the most perfect manner for this pur- 

 pose, there is an element necessary in addition to 

 strength of muscles and firmness of feathers, namely, 

 the power of taking a hold on the air by the fibrous 

 terminations of the webs of the feathers, especially 

 those of the under sides of the wings. Parrots of long 

 flight are a little better furnished in this respect than 

 short-flighted ones ; but still all of them have hard 

 feathers as compared with those of birds which 

 range greatly through the air. 



We have said that there is some confusion in the 

 systematic arrangement of these highly interesting 

 birds ; and that the ablest systematists are at issue 

 with each other on the subject. There may, in some 

 instances, be faults on the part of those systematists; 

 but the grand difficulty, of which none of them can 

 get the better, is the want of information, not merely 

 with regard to the shapes, colours, long or short tails, 

 large or small bills, naked or feathered cheeks, or 

 any of the other peculiarities which are usually made 

 grounds of specific distinction, but with regard to the 

 use of the birds in the economy of nalure, and how 

 the use of one varies from that of another. Buffon, 

 whose eloquence tended so powerfully to draw the 

 attention of mankind to natural history, and whose 

 errors in fact, and more especially in hypothesis, ha\e 

 tended so much to distract that attention, that it is 

 not easy to say whether upon the whole he did more 

 good or harm to natural history, made a sort of geo- 

 graphical division of the parrots. His primary sepa- 

 ration was into the parrots of the eastern continent 



