ORDER SCANSORES. 557 



came exclusively from India. In that country, these birds 

 were ever held in the highest estimation. We are informed 

 by ^lian that they were the favourite inmates of the palaces 

 of the princes : and were looked up to as objects of sacred 

 reverence by the religious feelings of the people. From thence 

 they were introduced into Europe at the time of the Mace- 

 donian conquest, and the specific name of Alexandria applied 

 by modern science to the type of the group, in honour of the 

 first European discoverer of it, serves to perpetuate the name 

 of a warrior, who is said to have valued the conquests that 

 extended the boundaries of his empire, chiefly as they served 

 to extend the boundaries of science. It was not until the 

 times of Nero, that the parrots of Africa became known to 

 the Romans. Some of 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 as 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 inor- 

 dinate luxury and wantonness of Heliogabalus."* 



We cannot resist the pleasure of transferring to our pages 

 some further observations by this gentleman, suggested by 

 the subject before us, nor will we do him the injustice of using 

 any language but his own. 



" But there is another point of view in which the interest 

 of such researches is strongly apparent. In general, we are 

 acquainted with the ancients chiefly through the records of 

 their most splendid actions. The dignity of history, and the 

 elevation of poetry, to which we are almost exclusively in- 

 debted for our knowledge of ancient manners, confine the 

 representations which are transmitted to us of them, for the 



• Zoological Journal, vol. II. p. 44, &c. Shetches in Ormthology. 

 By N. A. Vigors, Esq. 



