Parrots ^ Parakeets 173 



When the wings are spread, the flight feathers are 

 dark blue outside and a beautiful verdigris blue under- 

 neath. 



They are very scarce birds as cage pets, and a 

 specimen in full colour, such as swells the number of 

 my ornithological family, is a decided rarity. He is 

 not exactly an able-minded member of society, but he 

 is most amiable, and gives vent to very few sounds 

 that grate on the ear. 



He will come on to one's hand directly it is put 

 into his cage, and loves to be petted and made much of. 



They don't talk, these pioni, but they are beggars 

 to think. 



I am not concerned with parrots I have never 

 known much about, such as the big gaudy eclecti, 

 the females of which family are red and the males 

 green. Each sex is equally gorgeous in its own style 

 of plumage, and no one at first sight would take them 

 for the same kind of bird. 



They are inhabitants of the Moluccas and the 

 Solomon Archipelago. 



It is in that quarter of the globe that all the 

 gorgeous lories are found. 



They are distinguished from other parrots by the 

 peculiar brush on the tip of the tongue, which enables 

 them to suck the honey from flowers. 



None of the lories are larger than a turtle-dove, 

 and some are no bigger than a sparrow ; but greater 

 or smaller, all vie with one another in the brilliancy 

 and variety of their colouring, and, for the most part, 

 in the ear-piercing shrieks which they utter. 



