HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 79 



ed to give that satisfaction to the eye which a more 

 chastened, or rather a less abrupt, intermixture of 

 tints is wont to produce, still we think no one can 

 examine or look at some of the gorgeously decked 

 Maccaws, the splendid and effulgent Lories, or the 

 diversified tints of the Australian Parrakeets, with- 

 out acknowledging them to be among the most 

 beautiful and striking of the feathered race. 



In the first, second, and fifth subfamilies, the ground 

 or prevailing colour is green, generally of a lively 

 tint, and varying from grass to sap and emerald- green, 

 as expressed in Syme's Nomenclature of Colours. 

 Upon this groundwork, patches of almost every 

 known or possible hue are to be found in one or 

 other of the species. In the subfamily Plyctolophnia 

 alone we meet with a more uniform and plain attire, 

 the true cockatoos being white, or white tinged 

 more or less with rosy red or pale yellow. The other 

 forms in this group are black or greenish -black, some- 

 times relieved with large masses of red or yellow 

 upon the tail. In texture the plumage may be called 

 firm, close, and adpressed, in some species even as- 

 suming a scaled or titled appearance. The general 

 form of the Psittacidse may be stated as short, strong, 

 and compact, but as deficient in elegance, in the 

 short and even-tailed species, in which the great 

 bulk of the head and bill seems disproportioned to 

 the rest of the body. In the parrakeets, this dispro- 

 portion is done away with, or at least in a great de- 

 gree counteracted by the elongation of the tail, and 



