On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients. 41 



of their voice, were in general request and estimation : — that 

 they were the favourites of some of the highest personages of 



Psittacos mercem fecerint." Polyliist. c. 23. p. 121. Ed. Aid. 1518. Apuleius 

 refers to the same formation of the tongue as the cause of the same powers of 

 speech. " Verum ad disciplinam humani sermonis facilior est psittacus, 

 ghinde qui vescitur;— illud omnibus proprium, quo eis lingua latior, quam 

 cseteris avibus, eo facilius verba hominis articulantur patentiore plectro et 

 palato. Id vero quod dicit, ita similiter nobis canit, vel potius eloquitur, ut 

 vocem si audias, hominem putes." Florid. Lib. II. p. 137. Ed. Aid. 1521- 

 In fact these birds are seldom mentioned by classick writers without a refer- 

 ence to their voice. Arrian expressly alludes to it. Nta^j^or aepyiyisTxt — 

 oTroioi o^vis eartv o <7nra,Kos^ rnxi ovus (puvviv Ut avS^ ww/yijy." Hist. Ind. c. xv- 

 Plutarch, in one of those treatises which prove him to have been no ordinary 

 observer of nature, (see particularly his Treatises " De Amore Prolis," and 

 " De Solertia Animalium," Vol. VII. and X.) equally refers to the powers 

 of voice which these birds possess in common with the Stares, and Pies. 

 " foipts OE y.aci x/i^xKiS nxi ■^irrxx.ot (jiocv^xvovTss JiaXfyso-^a/, nxi to rvis 

 /puvric wvEtJ/xa tois oioatTKHiTiv EvrrXacarov iiroj xxi ^i^MiKov i^a.^i^iJ.Eiv y.x( 

 ^v^ijii^siv TToc^iy^ovrss ^ i[j.oi ooK^ai irfoqmeiv xa« crviftyoqeiv rois aXXois ^uois 

 IV Tu iA.xt^x)isiv^ r^oirov tiyx oioxo-xohtcs r/w.as', on y.xi 'n^o(poqiKti Koys kxi 

 ^mvis tvx^^^H iJi.tTtffri» xvrois." De Solertia Anim. Opera. Vol. X. p. 51. 

 Ed. Reiske. The poets abound in passages equally descriptive of their 

 powers of speech. 



" Quid tamen ista fides ? quid rari forma coloris ? 

 Quid vox mutandis ingeniosa sonis? — ; 



Non fuit in terris vocum simulacior ales ; 

 Reddebas bljeso tam bene verba sono. — 



iOccidit ille loquax, humanae vocis imago, 

 jPsittacus, extremo munus ab orbe datum." 



Ovid. Amor. L. U, El. VI. 



" Psittace dux volucrum, domini facunda voluptas, 



Ilumanee solers imitator Psittace lingute ; — 



Ille salutator reguni, nomenque locutus 



Ca?sareum, et queruli quondam vice functus amici, 



Nunc conviva levis, monstrataque reddere verba 



Tam facilis : quo tu, Melior dilecte, recluso 



Nunquam solus eras," Stat. Syl. L. II. 



The name of CcBsar seems to have been the favourite word, whicli was 

 taught to these " salutatores regum," and in former times to have occupied the 

 place of those trivial and unmeaning phrases which are in the mouths of our 

 modern Parrots. Tlie delicate flattery of the Roman epigrammatist is conspi- 

 cuous in the following line*. 



