552 CLASS AVES. 



ingly remain constantly on the ground, where they walk with 

 swiftness, which the other species cannot do. The legs of the 

 parrots are usually feathered to the heel ; but in two species, 

 the microglossa, the bottom of the leg is as naked as it is in 

 all the grallae. The colour of the feet is usually grey, but it 

 is in some roseous, bro\vn, or black. 



The colours of the plumage of the parrots are exceedingly 

 varied, and almost always pure and brilliant. The adult 

 females often differ in this respect from the males ; whilst 

 the young, in their first or second livery, and even after the 

 third moulting, present characters peculiar to themselves. 

 Green is, in general, the predominating colour; then comes red^ 

 then blue, and finally yellow. This last colour appears among 

 the parrots to be the general substitute for the white observed 

 in other birds ; and it is remarkable that, in many of their spe- 

 cies, there are varieties uniformly yellow, as among birds in ge- 

 neral we behold Albin''s varieties. Very often, when the feathers 

 are plucked, red and yellow ones will shoot forth, whatever 

 may have been the colour of the former. In the countries 

 inhabited by the parrots, the people give the name of tapires 

 to such of them as have their plumage mingled with those 

 reproduced red and yellow feathers, in the places which have 

 been plucked. It has been pretended, that the blood of a 

 certain species of frog introduced into the little wound caused 

 by the plucking of the feather, will make the red plume be 

 reproduced ; but this is without foundation. There are sonie 

 species violet, purple, brown, or lilac-coloured. Some are 

 known whose plumage is entirely grey ; some have it black, 

 and some, in fine, entirely white. 



Some rules are observable in the distribution of the colours. 

 Thus, the wing-quills are generally grey, brown, or black, at 

 their lower face and on their interior barbs, Avhich are con- 

 cealed ; while their external ones are brightly coloured in 

 their visible part. The tail-quills, in general, have the lower 



