.560 CLASS AVES. » 



well, and often with much rapidity, and through a consider- 

 ble extent of space. The majority confine themselves to lofty 

 and thickly tufted woods, frequently on the borders of cul- 

 tivated lands, the productions of which they plunder and 

 destroy. Their ordinary mode of flight is from one branch 

 to another ; and it frequently happens, that they will not fly 

 continuously, except when pursued. Many of them emigrate 

 according to the season, and, in particular, the Carolina 

 parrots. Such travel every year some hundreds of leagues, 

 differing in this respect from the habits of the others ; but 

 they are comparatively few in number. The difficulty of 

 flight, with many, is the cause of their restriction within 

 narrow limits ; and their concentration in certain islands, 

 while chey are not found in others, which border closely on 

 the former. This is peculiarly the case in many of the 

 island groups of Polynesia. 



The food of the parrots consists principally of the pulps of 

 fruits, such as those of the banana, the coffiee-tree, the palm, 

 the lemon, &c. They are especially fond of almonds ; for the 

 most part they attack the pulp only to get at the kernel ; this, 

 when once seized, is fixed on the under-wrinkled surface of 

 the upper mandible ; they turn it repeatedly until it is placed 

 by the tongue, in a proper direction for the introduction of 

 the trenchant edge of the lower mandible ; then the bird soon 

 forcibly separates the valves of the almond-shell, and, getting 

 the almond into its bill, soon divides it, so that all its envelopes 

 are rejected. The fragments are finally swallowed in succes- 

 sion. Some cockatoos of New Holland are said to live on roots, 

 and the pezopori seek their aliment in herbs. 



In domestication the parrots, maccaws, parakeets, and cock- 

 atoos, shew the same partiality for vegetable seeds, and, in 

 general, are fed very well on hemp-seed, the skins or husks 

 of which they detach with wonderful address. Some that 

 receive bones to gnaw, are known to acquire a very determined 

 taste for animal substances, but especially for the tendons, 



