ORDER SCANSORES. 571 



mits no intrusion of foreigners into the republic ; there is no 

 more possibility of usurping the rights of a citizen in their 

 society, than there was at Lacedemon; each of them, however, 

 will occasionally traverse the adjacent countries to levy 

 tribute, as the wandering hordes of Tartars sweep successively 

 through the deserts, to find subsistence for themselves, and 

 pasturage for their cattle. 



It will now be necessary to take a brief view of the dif- 

 ferent systems of classification adopted for this numerous and 

 important family of birds, by the more distinguished writers 

 on ornithology. 



The species of Psittacus are extremely numerous ; and 

 characters, derived from the length and form of the tail — 

 from the presence or the want of a tuft of feathers on the 

 head — from naked or feathered cheeks, have, in general, con- 

 stituted the basis of such divisions as have been made among 

 them. These divisions, however, must not be considered as 

 decidedly and strongly distinguished from each other ; like 

 the other subdivisions of the animal kingdom, they pass on 

 insensibly one to the other, by the gradation of characters in 

 the various species. 



By Linnaeus, Psittacus is formed into a genus of that ill- 

 defined order, the picae. He had but forty-seven species. 



Buffon divided the parrots, — first, into parrots of the Old 

 Continent ; second, into parrots of the new. The first are 

 subdivided thus : — 



1. Cockatoos, with short and square tail, and mobile 

 tuft. 



2. Parrots proper, short and equal tail, and head desti- 

 tute of tuft. 



3. Lories, with small bill, curved and sharp: red the 

 predominant colour in the plumage ; voice, sharp ; and 

 motion, quick. Some, or the lories properly so called, have 

 the tail moderately long, and rather angular, or comer-like. 



p p 2 



