392 



PARROT. 



and those of the western. Each of these he again 

 divided into seven families, placing the cockatoos at 

 the head of the eastern grand division, and the mac- 

 caws at the head of the western. Such an arrangement, 

 however, possesses no advantage ; because, though 

 there is not perhaps exactly the same species in the 

 east and in America, yet in each continent there are 

 some species approaching much more nearly to those 

 of the other than some of those of either conti- 

 nent approach each other. This arrangement must 

 therefore be abandoned, as indeed every arrangement 

 which is merely geographical must be, unless cause is 

 shown in the different characters and productions of 

 the countries which are contrasted. Now BuH'oa 

 had some crotchets on the subject of the differences 

 between the physical condition of the eastern and 

 the western continents, which cannot be admitted 

 into any system, the object of which is either the 

 establishment or the promotion of scientific truth. 



Perhaps one of the best arrangements of the parrots 

 is that made by Kuhl, who divides the whole family 

 into six divisions. These agree pretty nearly with 

 the common names which have been given to the 

 birds in English, which is always an advantage when 

 it can be adopted. These divisions, according to 

 Kuhl's arrangement, are maccaws which have the 

 tail long and wedge-shaped, and the cheeks naked of 

 feathers. Of these we have already given a very 

 slight general notice in the article ARA, though with- 

 out enumerating any of the species. The second 

 division are the long-railed parrots, some of which have 

 a naked space round the eyes, and some not ; and 

 those which have such a space are not unfrequently 

 styled maccaw parrots, as being, in this respect at 

 least, and also in the general form of their bodies, 

 something intermediate between the maccaws and 

 the true parrots. The members of this division, 

 which have the cheeks naked in part round the eyes, 

 are, almost without exception, natives of South Ame- 

 rica, and especially of Brazil, the grand head-quarters 

 of the maccaws ; though one at least is found in 

 Western Africa. Those which have the cheeks com- 

 pletely feathered round the eyes are, without excep- 

 tion, natives of the eastern continent, over which they 

 take a very wide range, being found in Western 

 Africa, in tropical Asia, in the oriental islands, and in 

 New Holland. The third division consists of birds 

 which are of smaller size, having the tails very short, 

 and either round or pointed. They are confined to 

 the eastern continent and the isles of the Pacific. 

 The fourth division consists of the parrots properly 

 so called, which have the tails of moderate length, or 

 rather short, and, generally speaking, squared over 

 at the termination. Birds of tin's division seem more 

 widely distributed than any of the rest. They are 

 plentiful in tropical America ; they occur also in 

 Western Africa ; they are found at the Cape of Good 

 Hope ; they are found in the West India islands ; 

 and also throughout the isles of the east. These are 

 the parrots properly so called, or the true parrots by 

 way of eminence ; and, as we already hinted, they 

 are found on richer pastures than any of the rest ; 

 they are perhaps not so elegant in their forms as some 

 of the others, but, taking them altogether, they ap- 

 pear to be birds of greater resource, are more docile 

 in confinement, and many of them can be made to 

 articulate better. The filth division in this mode of 

 arrangement comprises the cockatoos, which have the 

 tail squared over, the cheeks covered over with fea- 



thers, and a crost of feathers on the head, which they 

 are capable of erecting or flatteninsr at pleasure ; 

 they are almost, if not altogether, natives of Australia. 

 The sixth dhision, according to Kuhl, have the tail 

 even, and the cheeks naked, and are without any 

 crest. From this enumeration of them, it will be 

 seen that very little information can be conveyed bv 

 these divisions, which are perfectly artificial, and 

 each of them embraces birds differing as much in 

 their habits as some which are placed in different 

 divisions. 



When we take the more modern attempts at a 

 natural division of this family of birds, we are not 

 better off; because there is introduced into them the 

 QUINARY hypothesis, or that which supposes things 

 to have been created in fives, forming a sort of circle, 

 in which the end comes round and meets the begin- 

 ning, in a way which the abettors of the hypothesis 

 appear to be incapable of explaining, and which, in 

 all probability, they do not exactly understand. If, 

 therefore, we wish to understand anything correctly 

 about the parrots, we must really go to the common 

 names under which we group them, and to the study 

 of the species for such information as that may afford. 

 On the plate PARROTS there will be found figures of 

 four species, characteristic of an equal number of 

 those divisions into which the family is usually sepa- 

 rated ; and all that our limits will permit us to add 

 will be short notices of only a few of the species ; for 

 their numbers are so great that even the list of them 

 would far exced our limits. 



MACCAWS. Besides the name Ara, to which we 

 have already alluded, these birds have been called 

 Macroccrcus, from the large naked space on the 

 cheek and around the eye, or rather perhaps from 

 the great length of the tail ; and in this sense of the 

 word it is usually restricted to the larger ones, which 

 are exclusively American, and less confined to the 

 depths of the forests than the tree birds. They have 

 the bill rather short, and much compressed laterally, 

 but deep as seen in profile, and of great power. The 

 upper mandible is very much hooked, with the tip 

 descending far over the extremity of the under one, 

 which is also particularly strong, and so formed that 

 its cutting edge acts nearly at ri<rht angles against 

 the upper. The parts that act against each other are 

 very much ruffled, so that the bill is very powerful 

 as a crushing instrument ; it keeps a firm hold of those 

 nuts and other hard inclosures of kernels upon which 

 the birds feed. The wings are in themselves rather 

 more than of mean length, and they are very much 

 pointed ; but the tails are so long that they take off 

 from the apparent length of the wings. The tail is 

 also very much staged or graduated ; and all the 

 upper plumage of the birds is remarkably firm. The 

 tarsi are very short ; but both they and the toes are 

 strong and admirably formed for climbing. They 

 are decidedly tree birds ; but they are pretty discur- 

 sive in their flights from one part of the forest to 

 another. They nestle in the holes of trees, and the 

 hatch is said to consist of only two ; but how many 

 are produced in the year is not known. In a state 

 of nature the voices of maccaws are very loud, harsh, 

 and discordant ; and, as they can be taught to arti- 

 culate with difficulty, and then only a few words or 

 syllables, they are not so much in request as the true 

 parrots with short tails, or as some of the smaller of 

 the long-tailed species. They are handsome birds, 

 however, and very hardy ; and, therefore, notw'th- 



