THE ALEXANDRINE PARRAKEET. 91 



especially acceptable, and tliey display no little dexte- 

 rity in stripping off the outer coverings to arrive at the 

 kernels, of which they are excessively fond. They both 

 attack the cultivated fruits of the plantation in nume- 

 rous bands, and commit much wanton devastation in 

 the progress of their pillage, frequently destroying ten 

 times as much as they devour. In eating too the 

 Parrot, like the Monkey, often carries its food to its 

 mouth by means of its foot, which is thus made to 

 serve the purpose of a hand. The tallest trees of the 

 forest form their place of refuge, and on these both the 

 one and the other assemble in considerable numbers, 

 the noisy chattering and antic gestures of the Monkeys 

 being fully equalled by the hoarse cries and affected 

 postures of the Parrots. Their geographical distribu- 

 tion is also nearly the same, extending in both instances 

 throughout the whole of the torrid zone and but little 

 beyond its limits ; and both tribes are possessed of a 

 higher share of docility and intelligence than is found 

 in any other family of the classes to which they respec- 

 tively belong. When so many and such obvious coin- 

 cidences occur between animals so apparently dissimilar, 

 it is impossible not to recognise the existence of those 

 analogies which unequivocally demonstrate a unifomiity 

 of system throughout every part of the great edifice of 

 the creation. 



There is something so peculiar in the manners, in 

 the form, and in the colouring of the Parrots, that no 

 one, however little conversant with the subject, hesitates 

 in designating every one of them at the first glance by 

 its family name. And yet notwithstanding the intimate 

 union thus subsisting between the minor groups of the 

 family, and its almost complete isolation as a whole, 

 its technical characters can scarcely be expressed in too 

 general terms. The essential points of external struc- 



