42



The said article was written under great pressure for time ;

though eventually cut up by the Editor into a series of articles,

it was written by request as one, for a special number, and that

almost at a sitting. It was solely intended to be popular

for a popular paper; and, barring the Parrot volume of the

“ Naturalist’s Library,” I had no books at hand. I quite own

that under these circumstances it would have been better not to

allude to classification ; and I stand corrected by Mr. Castellan’s

superior scientific knowledge as to the commonly called “ Love¬

birds ” belonging to three, not one, scientific genus. He asks

what Parrots I was thinking of as coming from South-Eastern

Asia and the adjacent Islands. I was thinking of tiny Parrots

which I have personally known at different times, some brought

from Ceylon and some from, I believe, the Malay Peninsula,

and which, in form and voice, greatly resemble the true African

Lovebirds (. Agapornis ).


Mr. Castellan doubtless refers to the newest classification

of the Zoological Society of England, which I presume for

convenience sake we must all follow. The best collection of

small stuffed Parrots that I have ever seen is at Basle, where,

according to my notes, a very different classification is accepted.

I quite see that in habits there is a real distinction between the

Asiatic tiny Parrots and the true African Lovebirds; but though

it may be presumptuous for a practical aviculturist to criticise

scientific definitions, and I find much inconvenience from such

ornithologists as Levaillant and Temminck having despised

classification in a scientific sense, still I must say that it seems

to me very strange to find the little South American Passerine

Parrot placed in a totally different genus from the African

Lovebirds. I watch my birds very carefully, and have observed

the closest similarity between the Red-headed Lovebird and the

Passerine Parrot. Every note, every motion and attitude is alike,

and I am told they readily pair together. On the other hand,

the Madagascar Lovebird, placed in the genus Agapornis with

the other Africans, is in voice and manners very different.


I can only repeat what in other words I said in the

Feathered World, that anything like a complete list of the

miniature Parrots would be most interesting, ; and, with his

evident great knowledge of the Parrot tribe, perhaps Mr.

Castellan would, in some number of our Magazine, favour us

with at least an outline of a list of them, so far as discovery

has gone.



