On a group of Psitlacidm known to the Ancients. 43 



the most eminent poets. The well known Philippick of the elder 

 Cato against the luxury of his times, in which he particularly 

 declaims against the custom of carrying about these birds in pub- 

 lick, evinces the general favour in which they were held ; while 

 the high prices at which they were sometimes purchased, and the 

 costly materials of which their places of confinement were com- 

 posed,* demonstrate the high value which was set upon them. 

 It is not perhaps equally well known that the group, thus favoured 

 by antiquity, forms a detached division in the modern family of 

 Psittacidce ', and that any species belonging to it may at once be 

 detected in the largest assemblage of these birds, and distinguished 

 by strong generick characters from all the numerous species that 

 have been discovered in modern days. In the present sketch I 

 shall endeavour to point out these generick characters, the geo- 

 graphical limits of the group, and the situation which it appears 

 to hold in the family. 



KiX/ rocs /Soar zyMtoccy^iy txs yosqacs cxsevois, 

 '2vvxvuXo\v<^sy uvrecis inqi ra vsav/a, 

 K«< 'jr^ov^E^B Tov Afovra, x«/ avv^^vivsiv tuy.ii. 

 Turn itors BxtTi^e.ios oomtrocs tS a-r^a^m 

 AaXsvTor, ttxi tov Aiovra. (ps^ovros avx crroixx, — ■ 



IxxXxaairai r-ns axXv^oyvuixoawns 5 



A/5«/AEVoy, us EO/xSj [irrfitus 'nx^a. rrn (pvcriv 

 AcrvfA.'jTx^sarrs^os ocvra (pxivero tS CTT^sS/a." 



Const. Manass. Compend. Chron. p. 108. Ed. Paris. 16G5. 



The word ar^s^os was originally used hr a. sparrow; but ur^is^wv was chiefly 

 synomymous with avicula as the diminutive or familiar name of a pet bird of 

 any kind : and there can be but little doubt that the arqa^tov (AHirinof of the 

 imperial palace was a Parrot. 



* We may form an idea of the splendour of their cages from the description 

 given of one by Statius. 



" At tibi quanta domns, rutila testudine fulgens, 



Connexusque ebori virgarum argenteus ordo, 



Argutumque tuo stridentia limina cornu, 



Et querulas jam sponte fores : vatat ille bcatus 



Career. — " iSylv. L. II. 



