tim THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



The parrots are subdivided into numerous groups and species, 

 chiefly according to the various forms of their bills and tails. 

 The short-tailed parrots of the Old World mostly display bright 

 or gaudy colours, such as the Lories, which owe their name to 

 the frequency with which they repeat this word, while the 

 American species are generally green. The Indians have, 

 however, found out an ingenious method to adorn the plumage 

 of the Amazonian parrot {Psittacus Artiazonicu8\ which is in 

 great request, from its being easily tamed, and learning to 

 speak with facility. They take a young bird from its nest, 

 pluck the feathers from its back and shoulders, and then rub 

 the naked parts with the blood of a small species of frog. 

 The feathers which grow again after this operation are no 

 longer green, but yellow, or of a bright red colour. Many 

 birds die in consequence of being plucked, and thus these meta- 

 morphosed parrots are extremely rare, notwithstanding the high 

 prices which the savages obtain for fhem. 



The Cockatoos are distinguished from the other parrots by a 

 crest of elegant feathers, which they can raise and depress at 

 pleasure. They inhabit the East Indies and Australia-, and 

 have generally a white or roseate plumage. Their chief re- 

 sorts are dense and humid forests, and they frequently cause 

 great devastations in the rice plantations, often pouncing to 

 the number of six or eight hundred upon a single field, and 

 destroying even more than they devour. 



The great white cockatoo {Cacatua Cristata), who is able 

 to raise his beautiful yellow crest five inches high, as a cock 

 does his comb, is the species most frequently seen in Europe. 

 This bird is half-domesticated in several parts of India, as 

 it builds its nest under the roofs of houses, and this tameness 

 results from its intelligence, which seems superior to that of 

 other parrots. 



As Australia, the land of anomalies in natural history, pos- 

 sesses a black swan, it also gives birth to a splendid black 

 cockatoo {Cacatua Banksii), the finest and rarest of the whole 

 genus. Captain Grey gives us an animated description of the 

 chasing of this bird. ' Perhaps the finest sight that can be 

 seen, in the whole circle of native sports, is the killing cocka- 

 toos with the kiley or boomerang. A native perceives a large 

 flight of cockatoos in a forest which encircles a lagoon : the 



