BIRDS. 75 



"Witn, speak parrot, I prai you, ful courteously thei say,' 

 Parrot is a goodly bird, a pretty popagey. 



" With my beeke bent, my little wanton eye, 

 My feders freshe, as is. the emeraude grene, 

 About my necke a circulet, like the ryche rubye, 

 My lyttle legges, my fete both nete and cleane, 

 I am a minion to waite upon the quene ; 

 My proper parrot, my lytile pretty foole, 

 With ladies I learne, and go with them to scole." 



Among the more remarkable kinds are these furnished 

 ■with cylindrical, elongated, tubular tongues.* Their cheeks 

 are naked, and their upper mandible greatly developed. The 

 two species best known are the Psillicus gigas of Shaw, 

 sometimes called the giant-cockatoo, and the Psitticus go- 

 liath of Kuhl. These now form the genus MiCToglossum. 

 The giant-cockatoo was first described and figured by Ed- 

 wards, from a drawing taken from the living bird in the 

 island of Ceylon. Both species, however, are now said to 

 be derived from the Papuan Islands, which lie beyond the 

 bounds of bur domain. 



We have next to present a brief sketch of the gal- 

 linaceous order, which is represented in India by several 

 species of importance. 



The common peacock {Pavo cristaius, Linn.), so much 

 admired for the surpassing splendour of its plumage, and 

 now so familiarly knowTi as a domestic bird, though it has 

 been reduced to servitude for some thousand years, still oc- 

 curs in the wild state in the forests of Hindostan as well as 

 in Japan and other parts of Southern Asia. Its earliest 

 record is contained in the sacred writings : — " For the king's 

 ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram : every 

 three years once came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold 

 and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks."! The intro- 

 duction of this bird to the western and northern quarters 

 of Europe has never been clearly traced ; but every step 

 of its progress has no doubt been owing rather to the art 

 of man than the instinct of nature. Its 7tatural tendency 



* The structure of the tongue in this limited section is probably nd 

 accurately known. If not elongated and tubular, it is at least cup-shaped 

 St the extremity, and supported on a cylindrical stalk. 



I 2 Chronicles ix. 21. 



