198 P A R R O T. 



and even fifii *, when kept tame. For the mod part, make ncr 

 neft, breeding like Owls in hollow trees \, At certain feafons fly 

 in prodigious troops, but obferved to keep two and two together 

 notwithftanding J. This genus confifts of infinite variety, per- 

 haps not fo much owing to mixture of fpecies as may be fuppofed,. 

 if Sonnerat's \\ remark be true ; yet they feem to run vaftly into 

 one another, fo as to induce one to think many of them related, 

 though received from different parts of the world. In this, how- 

 ever, we may be deceived, as they are perpetually carried from 

 one continent to the other for the fake of fale. This uncertainty 

 of native place muft prevent our following the otherwife judicious 

 plan of Buffon, of ranging them according to the places they are 

 fuppofed to inhabit, and we fhall therefore merely divide them 

 into thofe with uneven, and thofe with even tails, much after the 



* Dr. Forfier, fpeaking of the effeft of a poifonous fifh, obferves, that a little 

 favourite Parrakeet died in confequence of eating a bit of it. See Obferv. p. 209, 

 607. and Foy. vol. ii. p. 238. — As to flefh, molt tame ones will eat it when 

 drefled ; but Shane fays, a great Maccavv " fed on raw flelh chiefly, but would 

 " eat other things likewife." Hiji. Jam. vol. ii. p. 29,6. 



•j- Fermin fays, that fome of the larger forts make nelh by gathering a quan- 

 tity of rulhes and fmall twigs, which they weave together, and faft.ii to the ex- 

 treme branches of the higheft trees. De/crip. de Surinam, vol. ii. p. 177. 



% Fermin obferves, that at Surinam, about the time of coffee-gathering, they 

 are feen by thoufands, of which above an hundred weie killed in an hour, and 

 the tongues of them cooked up into a dim, which was thought favoury. De/crip, 

 de Surinam, vol. ii. p. 1 77 . 



[J He obferves, that notwithftanding Parrots of the fame fpecies are found at 

 great dittances from each other on the continent, yet in the ijlands each maintains 

 a fpecies which is peculiar to that alone, and not to others of the fame group, 

 though the dillance from one to the other be however fmall. Scnn. Foy, p. 74. 



manner 



