HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 81 



used, like the foot, as an organ of prehension and 

 support. The pointed and ample wing, which we 

 perceive to prevail among the parrots, indicates a 

 corresponding power of flight ; and accordingly we 

 learn from those who have enjoyed the enviable op- 

 portunity of seeing and studying them in their na- 

 tive wilds, that it is rapid, elegant, and vigorous, 

 capable of being long sustained, and that many of 

 the species are in the habit of describing circles and 

 other aerial evolutions, previous to their alighting 

 upon the trees which contain their food. Thus A u- 

 dubon, in his account of the Carolina Parrakeet, says, 

 " Their flight is rapid, straight, and continued through 

 the forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accom- 

 panied by inclinations of the body, which enable the 

 observer to see alternately their upper and under 

 parts. They deviate from a direct course only when 

 impediments occur, such as trunks of trees or hou es, 

 in which case they glance aside in a very graceful 

 manner, as much as may be necessary. A general 

 cry is kept up by the party, and it is seldom that 

 one of these birds is on wing for ever so short a 

 space, without uttering its cry. On reaching a spot 

 which aifords a supply of food, instead of alighting 

 at once, as many birds do, the parakeets take a 

 good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over it 

 m circles of great extent, first above the trees, and 

 then gradually lowering, until they almost touch the 

 ground, when, suddenly reascending, they all settle, 

 on the tree that bears the fruit of which they are in 



