CLASS 11. AVES: ORDER 3. SCANSORES. 



215 



MACAWS. 



the natural habitat of the race. It is accordingly in those regions where the trees are clothed 

 with perpetual verdure, and where a never-failing succession of fruits and seeds can be procured, 

 that the Parrots are found in the greatest number and profusion. Thus, the recesses of the in- 

 terminable forests of South America arc enlivened by the presence of the superb J/a caws, and the 

 nearly allied species of the genus Psittacaixi ; those of India and its islands by the elegantly 

 shaped members of the genus Paloeornis, and the scarlet-clothed Lories ; while those of Australia 

 resound with the harsh voice of the Cockatoos^ and the shriller screams of the insectivorous Trich- 

 oglossi, and broad-tailed Parrakeets, or Plahjccri. In these, their natural situations, their move- 

 ments are marked by an ease and gracefulness we can never see exhibited in a state of confine- 

 ment. They are represented as climbing about the branches in every direction, and as suspend- 

 ing themselves from them in every possible attitude ; in all their movements they are greatly as- 

 sisted by their hooked and powerful bill, which is used, like the foot, as an organ of prehension 

 and support. 



The pointed and ample wing, which prevails among the Parrots, indicates a corresponding 

 power of flight; and, accordingly, we learn from those who have enjoyed the opportunity of see- 

 ing and studying them in their native wilds, that it is rapid, elegant, and vigorous, capable of 

 being long sustained, and that many of the species are in the hal>it of describing circles and other 

 aerial evolutions, previous to their alighting upon the trees which contain their food. Thus 

 Audubon, in his account of the Carolina Parrot, says: "Their flight is rapid, straight, and con- 

 tinued through the forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied by inclinations of the 

 body, which enable the observer to sec alternately their upper and under parts. They deviate 

 from a direct course only when impediments occur, such as trunks of trees or houses, in which 

 case they glance aside in a very graceful manner, as much as may be necessary. A general cry 

 is kept up by the party, and it is seldom that one of these birds is on the wing for ever so short 

 a space without uttering its cry. On reaching a spot which aflfords a supply of food, instead of 

 alighting at once, as many birds do, the Parrakeets take a good survey of the neighborhood, pass- 

 ing over it in circles of great extent, first above the trees, and then gradually lowering, until they 

 almost touch the ground, when, suddenly reascending, they all settle in the tree that bears the 

 fruit of which they are in quest, or on one close to the field in which they expect to regale them- 

 selves." 



Many of the species are gregarious, and except during the breeding season, are always seenin 

 large and numerous bodies; others, as the Black Cockatoo, arc met with in pairs or families. 

 The places selected for hatching their eggs and rearing their young are the hollows of decayed 

 trees ; they make little or no nest, but deposit their eggs, which, according to the species, vary 



