On a group of Psittacidce known to the Ancients. 45 



these birds were among the discoveries made in the course of an 

 expedition sent out by that prince. They came apparently from 

 the neighbourhood of the Red Sea. And it is probable that a* 

 that country became more known, numbers of the same race 

 were imported from it into Rome, and formed the chief part of 

 those victims of the Parrot tribes, which in after times are said 

 to have supplied the inordinate luxury and wantonness of Helio- 

 gabalus.* 



The Indian group thus familiar to the ancients, may be idenli- 

 fied with those beautiful birds, equally the favourites of our mo- 

 dern times, which are brought to us from the same country, and 

 which are distinguished by the rose coloured collar round their 

 neck, the brilliant emerald of their body, and the deep ruby of 

 their bill. Pliny points out distinctly the former characters. 

 '' India banc avem mittit, sittacen vocat, viridem toto corpore, 

 torque tantum miniato in cervice distinctam." t Solinus, in gene- 

 ral the servile copier of Pliny, confirms this description, though 



commerce brought from India by the inhabitants of Syria, and being trans- 

 ported from thence to Rome were mistaken for natives of that province. 

 Bochart coincides in this opinion, who thinks that the P:iittacus was unknown 

 to the Jewish writers. See Hierozoic. Pars. 2"** p. 342. 



* The following Bill of Fare which furnished the table of the above em- 

 perour may be of some novelty and interest to the bon vivant, if not to the 

 naturalist. " Comedit esepius ad imitationem Apicii calcanea camelorum, et 

 cristas vivis gallinaceis demptas, linguas pavonum et lusciniarum : quod qui 

 ederet ab epilepsia tutus diceretur. Exhibuit et palatinis ingentes dapes cxtis 

 mullorum refertas, et cerebellis phcenicopterum, et perdicum ovis, et cerebelhs 

 turdorutn, et c&'piiihws psittacorum, et fasianorum, et pavonum.'" Nor did he 

 reserve such delicacies merely for his own table. " Misit et uvas apamenas in 

 praesepia equis suis : et psittacis atque /asianis leones pavit et alia animalia." 

 ^Lius Lamprid, Vit. Heliog. Script. Hist. Rom. Min. Tom. III. p. 965. 

 Ed. Hen. Steph.1568. Numbers however of these birds must have been im- 

 ported into Rome at a much earlier period, for Apicius himself must have 

 feasted upon no small proportion of them. It is also probable that Parrois were 

 among the number of those vocal birds which the elder Aesopus, the tragedian, 

 is said to have sacrificed to his extravagance. " Huic nimirum magis Aeso- 



pus , quem constat cantu commendabiles aviculas, immanibus emptas pre- 



tiis, pro ficedulis ponere." Val, Max, Lib. IX. c. 1.2. 



+ Lib. X. e. 42, 



