192 



THE MALA Y PRO VINCE 



birds inhabiting the Oriental region and Australia. A common Malay species, also 

 inhabiting India and Ceylon, is the hedge-cuckoo (Centropus sinensis), a bird 

 about the size of a jackdaw, with glossy black plumage showing greenish and 

 reddish brown wings. Another characteristic representative of the group is the 

 bush-cuckoo (Zanclostomus javanicus), ranging from Tenasserim and the Malay 

 Peninsula to Sumatra, Java, and Borneo, and the only representative of its genus. 



y 



BLUE-CROWNED HANGING PARROTS. 



Parraquets. 



It is steely blue and green above, and chestnut beneath, with the head, neck, and 

 breast grey, and the tip of the tail white. 



To devote any space to the description of the physical character- 

 istics of the parrot tribe on the present occasion would be quite 

 superfluous, but it may be well to mention that in the wild state these birds are of 

 a sociable nature, associating;: even during the breedino--time in colonies, which after 

 the young are hatched increase to immense flocks, whose members are accustomed 

 to fly long distances in search of food. Only those of one genus breed on the 

 ground, and those of a second in an open nest, all the rest using holes in the 



