PARRAQUETS. 127 



•lifficult to believe that they belong to the same species. In the female, the beak 

 is black and the eye yellow : the plumage of the head and upper-parts of the neck 

 and breast is rich crimson-red : a band across the upper part of the back, the lower 

 breast and abdomen, as well as the edge of the wing and under-co verts, are blue ; 

 the back, rump, upper tail, and wing-coverts, and the secondaries are blood-red ; the 

 primaries and their coverts are blue, edged with green on their outer webs ; while 

 the tail is blood-red above, and more dusky beneath. In the more soberly clad 

 male, the general green hue is relieved by red on the axillaries and under wing- 

 coverts ; while there is blue on the angle of the wing, and the primaries and their 

 coverts ; the under surface of both the wings and tail-feathers being black. In 

 the beak, the upper mandible is vermilion, and the lower one black. No adequate 

 conception of the gorgeous coloration of these birds can, however, be conveyed 

 without the aid of coloured illustrations. This splendid parrot ranges from the 

 Aru Islands through New Guinea to the Solomon Islands ; but, as with its allies, 

 scarcely anything is known concerning its habits in the wild state. In captivity 

 it is readily tamed ; but its chief attraction lies in its brilliant plumage, as its 

 movements are listless and devoid of interest, and it is at times subject to lits of 

 deafening screaming. 



All who have travelled or resided in India are familiar with the 

 True Parraquets. 



flights of long-tailed parraquets which swarm in every jungle, and 



form one of the most characteristic features of an Oriental landscape. These 

 parraquets, of which there are many species, belong to a genus ranging from 

 Africa north of the Equator, through Mauritius and the Seychelles, to India, 

 Burma, the south of China, and Malaysia, and taking its name from the 

 circumstance that one of the species was brought to Europe by Alexander the 

 Great from the Punjab. They are characterised by the long and graduated tail, 

 in which all the feathers, but especially the middle pair, are narrow ; and by the 

 presence of a notch in the upper mandible ; while very frequently there is a 

 I'ose-coloured collar round the neck, at least in the males. The general hue of 

 the plumage is green ; but while in one large group the head is of this colour, in 

 a second it is only partially green, or not green at all. The best known species 

 is the ring-necked parraquet (Palceornis torquatus), belonging to the former group, 

 and ranging from India to Cochin-China. In length, this bird varies from 10 to 

 17 inches, of which from dh to 10 are taken up by the tail ; and while its general 

 colour is green, the neck of the male is ornamented with a rose-red collai", 

 incomplete in front, above which is a black ring incomplete behind. Far 

 handsomer, however, is the Indian blossom-headed parraquet (P. cyanocephaliis), 

 in which the head of the male is red, tinged with plum-colour on the sides and 

 back, and defined by a narrow black collar, while the middle feathers of the tail 

 are blue. The following account of the habits of the Indian ring-necked species 

 is given by Jerdon, who writes that it frequents " cultivated grounds and 

 gardens, even in the barest and least wooded p;irts of the country, and it is 

 habitually found about towns and villages, constanth' perching on the house- 

 tops. It is very destructive to most kinds of grain, as well as to fruit-gardens. 

 When the grains are cut and lioused, it feeds on the ground, on the stubble corn- 

 fields, also on meadows, picking up what grains it can; and now and then takes 



