EIKD9. 203 



variety and abuiKlanco, and add to the splendour of those woods 

 wliich Nature has dressed iu eternal green.* 



So generally are these birds known at present, and so great is 

 their variety, that nothing seems more extraordinary than that 



* 



It would bo quite a hopeless task to attempt to enumerate the species 

 and varieties of the parrot tribe. Buffon divided the parrots.-first, into 

 parrots of tlie Old Continent ; second, into parrots of the New. Tlic first are 

 bubdivided thus : 



i. Cockatoos, >vith short and square tail, and mobile tuft. 



2. Parrots proper, short and equal tail, and head destitute of tuft. 



3. Lories, with small bill, curv.'d and sharp : red the predominant colour 

 in the pUunage ; voice, sharp ; and motion, quick. Some, or the lories pro- 

 perly so caUed, have the tail moderately long, and rather angul.ar, or cor- 

 ner like. Others, the lory-p.arrakeets, have the tail longer, and more re- 

 sembling that of the parrakects. 



4. Parrakeets, with long tails, subdivided into those Avhich have the tail 

 equally graduated, and those which have the two intermediate quills much 

 longer than the others. 



5. Parrakeets, with short tails. 



The second subdivision is composed of— 



1. Aras or Maccau-s, with long graduated tails, and naked checks. 



2. Amaxons, with tail short and equal ; green plumage ; red on the carpus 

 of the wing, and yellow on the head. 



3. Cricks, like the preceding, but without the rod, having it only on the 

 coverts ; plumage, duller green, without the pure yellow on the head, and 

 of smaller size. 



4. Papegais (for which perhaps the word popinjay may be admitted as a 

 translation), smaller than the cricks, aud without red on the wing. 



o. Parrakeets [perruches), subdivided into long-tailed and short. 



Dr Latham has simplified this division, and distinguishes but two groups, 

 without respect to the habitat ; for, as he well observes, the uncertainty of 

 the country of many of those birds renders such a division inconvenient. 

 He divides the parrots into — first, those with equal : second, those with un- 

 equal tails. 



Le Vaillant has in some measure modified the classification of Buffon, 

 without taking the habitat into consideration. He acknowledges the groups 

 of aras and cockatoos, with the characters above cited ; he unites the par. 

 rots, the amazons, the cricks, and papog.iis, under the general denomina- 

 tion of parrots (perroquets.) He places in the division of parrakeets {per- 

 ruches), all that have graduated tails, aud feathered cheeks; but still sub. 

 divides it into four groups : — 



1. Parrakeet Maccaws {perruches-aras), m which the circumference 

 uunid the eye is naked. 



2. Parrakeets proper, with cheeks entirely feathered, tail more or less 

 long, but equally graduated and always sharp. 



3. Arrow- tailed parrakeets, (;ae/-)uc/ie,s a queue en fieche), in which the 

 two intermediate quills are much the longest. 



\. I'arrakeets with broad tails, whose quills are not attenuated towards 



