PARROT. 101 



live on fruits and seeds, but will eat flesh, and even fish* when kept 

 tame. For the most part they make no nest ; breeding like Owls in 

 hollow trees.t At certain seasons fly in prodigious troops, but are 

 observed to keep in pairs together, notwithstanding. $ This Genus 

 consists of an amazing variety; perhaps not so much owing to the 

 mixture of species as may be supposed, if the remark of M. Sonnerat 

 be true ; that, although the same species may be found at great 

 distances on the Continent, owing to their shifting their quarters 

 occasionally for food ; yet in the Islands, each maintains certain 

 species, which are peculiar to that alone, and not to others of the same 

 group, though the distance from one to the other be very short ; and 

 their plumage seems to partake so much of each other as to induce us 

 to suppose many of them related, though received from different parts 

 of the world. In this, however, we may be deceived, as they are 

 perpetually carried from one Continent to the other for the sake of 

 sale. This uncertainty of native place might prevent our following 

 the otherwise judicious plan of Buffbn, in arranging them according 

 to the places they are supposed to inhabit, and we shall therefore 

 merely divide them into those with uneven, and those with even 

 tails, much after the manner of Linnaeus, giving the best account 

 possible of each. 



* Dr. Forster speaking of the effect of a poisonous fish, observes, that a little favourite 

 Parrakeet died in consequence of eating a bit of it. — See Obs. p. 209. 7. — Voy. vol. ii. 238. 

 as to flesh, most tame ones will eat it when dressed ; but Sloane says, a great Maccaw fed on 

 raw flesh chiefly, but would eat other things likewise. — Hist. Jam. ix- p»296. 



f Fermin mentions, that some of the larger sorts make nests, by gathering a quantity of 

 rushes and small twigs, which they weave together, and fasten to the extreme branches of 

 the highest trees. — Dcscrip. de Surinam, ii. 177. 



X M. Fermin observes, that at Surinam, about the time of coffee gathering, they are 

 seen by thousands ; of which above 100 have been killed in an hour, and the tongues of 

 them cooked up into a dish, which was thought savoury. — Descrip.de Surinam, ii. p. 177. 



