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650 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO \6Qi. 



An Epistle written by Josephus de Aromatariis, concerning the Seeds of Plants, 

 'm'i and Generation of Animals. N° 211, p. 150. 



The contents of this epistle are so little interesting, that it is not thought 

 necessary to specify them. 



Observations in the Dissection of a Paroquet. liy Mr. Richard Waller. 



N°311, p. 153. 



There is perhaps not a greater variety of species than in the parrot-kind, 

 whether we consider the country, size, or colour. Johnston treating of these 

 birds says, The curious have observed above a hundred sorts of them ; Margrave 

 in his History of Brasil, enumerates several, and his 6th species of paroquets, 

 which he calls tajete, comes very near our subject. Its size is between a spar- 

 row and a blackbird, with a short neck, black eyes, a crooked scarlet bill, 

 greyish legs and feet, with toes, two before and two behind, like the parrot ; 

 yet he never stands on one foot to eat with the other, as parrots do. When he 

 stands still on the perch, his breast and belly show of a curious light green ; his 

 back and the feathers of his wings are somewhat darker ; on his pinions are 

 some short blue feathers, as also several on his rump. His bill is encompassed 

 up to the eyes with a broad beautiful scarlet circle, reaching also down to his 

 throat ; this part in the hen is of a pale orange colour, which is the only 

 observable difference. The feathers in the tail, which, as in all small paroquets, 

 is no longer than the wings, are not to be seen but when he flutters or spreads 

 it. They are about 2 inches long, near the quill of a lemon colour, inclining 

 to a green ; next that a scarlet of some breadth ; then a narrow streak of green 

 on some of them ; after that a black, and lastly ending in a light green. 



Having opened the thorax and abdomen by blowing into the aspera arteria, a 

 large cavity or bladder was raised up all along the abdomen to the edges of the 

 OS ischium, and fastened to the gizzard, containmg in it all the guts and gizzard, 

 but excluding the heart and liver. A conformation like this is observed in all 

 birds, and is peculiar to them, and mentioned by Perrault in his Mechanique 

 des Animaux. The aspera arteria differs from that of most other animals, 

 having not only a larynx at the top, as is usual, but another also at its entrance 

 into the breast, where it is divided, and branches itself into two. From this 

 structure, said to be common to all parrots, possibly it may be that they can 

 so readily imitate human voices ; but this creature we dissected never attempts 

 an imitation of words, making only a shrill chirping noise, doubling the tone, 

 or making it 8 notes lower, as a stopped organ-pipe is an 8th to the same open. 

 This lower larynx may assist the weak fabric of so small a creature as a parrot 



