564 CLASS AVES. • 



hatched. Since these observations were published by M. La- 

 mouroux, collared parrakeets of Senegal, and pavonian parra- 

 keets, have been born in Paris, in hollows made in large bil- 

 lets of wood, where the parents had fixed their nest. 



Of all animals in the creation, there are none so calculated 

 to attract the attention and admiration of man, as those which 

 appear to approximate to his own nature, and to partake of 

 some of the attributes of humanity. This is the case with 

 the apes among the mammalia, and the parrots in the class of 

 birds. Both exhibit some of the physical peculiarities of man, 

 and both present a very striking analogy with each other. 



The ape, from his external form, so like the human, his 

 gestures and gait, the rude resemblance of his face, to that of 

 man, from the analogous arrangement of all his organs with 

 ours, but especially by the use of his hands, a certain air of 

 intelligence, and from actions imitative of ours, has been re- 

 garded as a species of imperfect and wild man. Had he 

 received the gift of speech, like the parrot, he would have 

 passed for a genuine man in the eyes of the multitude, who 

 judge always rather from external appearances than calm 

 and reflective examination. The parrot is in the order of birds 

 what the ape is in that of viviparous quadrupeds. It would 

 appear, on first view, to be still more closely connected with 

 us, than the latter, because the communion of speech is more 

 intimate than that of mere sign and gesture. Besides, speech 

 is the expression of thought, while gesture is nothing but the 

 demonstration of physical wants. The latter is altogether 

 corporeal, the former appertains to the mind. 



We must not, however, consider the articulated voice of the 

 parrot as a proof of the superiority of his intelligence over that 

 of other animals, or of its analogy with our own. It is cer- 

 tainly true, that the parrots exhibit the most perfect brain to 

 be found among any of the feathered races. The anterior 

 lobes of its hemispheres are more prolonged than they are in 

 rapacious birds, and the encephalon is witler, and more flatted 



