ORNITHOLOGY. 



601 



Scansores. the upper mandible compressed at the tip. The head is 

 v "~"-v~ - ~' feathered, but the orbits are naked. The species, such as 

 P. squamosus, &c. are likewise natives of South America. 



The genus Pal^ornis of Vigors has the bill rather 

 thick, the culmen of the upper mandible rounded, the 

 lower broad, short, emarginate. The middle feathers of 

 the tail are greatly lengthened. The most anciently known 

 of the parrot race belong to this genus, such as the Alex- 

 andrine parrakeet, and other long-tailed species, distin- 

 guished by their elegance of form, their ruby-coloured 

 bills, their semicircled necks, and the rich verdure of 

 their plumage. The one just named is native to India 

 and Ceylon, and derives its designation from the fact, real 

 or supposed, of its having been first transported from Asia- 

 tic countries by Alexander the Great. Its most distin- 

 guishing characters consist in the broad black patch which 

 occupies the fore- part of the throat, and extends laterally in 

 two narrow processes on each side of the neck ; a black 

 line stretches from the base of the beak to the eyes, and 

 there is a deep purplish-red patch at the base of the wings. 

 Its bill is larger than that of the rose-coloured parrakeet 

 (P. torquatus), which, however, it greatly resembles in its 

 general aspect. The last-named species is widely spread 

 over India, and as far eastward as Manilla. It appears, 

 indeed, to be identical with another species extremely 

 abundant on the African coasts, and well known in France 

 under the title of perruche de Senegal. In so far as any 

 conclusion can be drawn from the vague and brief de- 

 scriptions handed down by ancient writers, it would appear 

 that this species was, as it still continues to be, more fre- 

 quent in the days of antiquity than any of its congeners. No 

 allusion is made by these authors to those specific marks by 

 which the Alexandrine parrakeet is so clearly distinguish- 

 ed, and the general description applies very closely to the 

 rose-necked kind. That the latter was extensively known, 

 and held in high esteem on account of the brilliancy of its 

 plumage, the docility of its manners, and its successful 

 imitative powers, is proved by innumerable passages in 

 the classical writers of antiquity, more especially from the 

 earliest times of the Roman empire, to a very late period 

 of its annals. 1 The Alexandrine parrot is generally sup- 

 posed to have been brought to Europe from the island of 

 Ceylon, the ancient Taprobane. In the reign of Nero, 

 the Romans introduced other species from different quar- 

 ters of Africa. 2 They were higMy prized by that luxu- 

 rious people, who lodged them in superb cages of silver, 

 ivory, and tortoise-shell ; and the price of a parrot in those 

 days frequently exceeded that of a slave. 3 Nor did Ovid 

 think it beneath him to write a lengthened elegy on the 

 death of Corinna's favourite, — a bird which, in the love it 

 bore its mistress, seems to have emulated that of the 

 dying Greek for his country : — 



Clamavit moriens lingua, Corinna, Vale. 4 



In the same group is generally included that beautiful 

 and richly varied species from the Molucca Islands, called 

 the blue-bellied parrakeet, Ps. cyanogaster, Shaw. Its 

 tongue, in common with that of several New Holland par- 



rakeets, is finely ciliated at the tip on either side. Hence Scansores. 

 the formation in their favour of Mr Vigors's genus Tri- v — — V~ ' 

 choglossus. Vailliant, during his residence at the Cape, 

 had an opportunity of studying the manners of a pair of 

 the species just named, which had been imported from 

 Amboyna. They bred during their confinement in the 

 menagerie of M. Van Bletemberg, then governor of the 

 Cape. The female deplumed her beautiful breast, and 

 after having collected the feathers into a heap, deposited 

 two round white eggs, on which she sat most assiduously, 

 the male feeding her at intervals, by disinterestedly dis- 

 gorging what he had swallowed, and presenting the same 

 to his spouse. The young were produced at the end of 

 nineteen days, and in the space of a few more became co- 

 vered with a gray cinereous down, which was by degrees 

 succeeded by green feathers on the body, and by blue ones 

 on the head. At the end of three weeks they left the 

 nest, and perched upon the neighbouring sticks, where 

 the male and female fed them in concert, as above de- 

 scribed, after the manner of pigeons. The parent birds 

 continued to tend them in this manner for six months, 

 and often afforded a very interesting scene, — the young 

 being frequently seated beyond the female, and the male 

 not being able to reach thein, first presented the food to 

 his mate, who immediately delivered it to her young. 

 These, though of different sexes, were perfectly alike till 

 the first moulting, at which time red feathers bordered 

 with green began to appear upon the breast, and the male 

 became distinguished by the blue patch upon the ab- 

 domen. 5 



In the genus Platycercus, Vigors, the tail is broad, 

 depressed, and somewhat rounded. The species inhabit 

 New Holland, and the islands of the South Pacific and In- 

 dian Oceans. Examples PI. Pennantii, Tabuensis, &c. 



Among the perruches ordinaires of Cuvier (a portion of 

 the genus Conurus, Kuhl), distinguished by a regularly 

 graduated tail, without any disproportionate prolongation 

 of the central feathers, we have the Carolina parrot of 

 Wilson (Ps. Carolinensis, Linn.), a green plumaged bird, 

 with yellow head and neck, the forehead and cheeks orange. 

 Of more than two hundred species now known to belong 

 to the parrot tribe, this is the only one which inhabits the 

 United States, where it is chiefly restricted to the warmer 

 portions, — venturing but rarely beyond Virginia. West 

 of the Alleghanies, however, circumstances induce it to visit 

 much higher latitudes, — so that, following the great valley 

 of the Mississippi, it is seen to frequent the banks of the 

 Illinois, and occasionally to approach the southern shores 

 of Lake Michigan. Straggling parties have even been 

 sometimes observed in the valley of the Juniata, in Penn- 

 sylvania ; and a flock, to the great surprise of the Dutch in- 

 habitants of Albany, are said to have appeared in that vi- 

 cinity. This species constantly inhabits and breeds in the 

 southern states, and is so far hardy as to make its appear- 

 ance, commonly in the depth of winter, along the woody 

 banks of the Ohio, the interior of Alabama, and the banks 

 of the Mississippi and Missouri around St Louis and other 

 places, when nearly all other southern birds have migrated 



1 Ancient writers are unanimous in their statements that parrots came to us first of all from India. Aristotle calls the Psittacus 

 " to l»'«;«o» »{»eo» ;" and Arrian also makes it a native of the East (Hist. Tnd. cap. xv.). The parrots of Africa became first known to 

 the "Romans in the time of Nero. (Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vi. c. 29.) For the classical history of these birds, see Mr Vigors's " Sketches 

 in Ornithology," — Zoological Journal, vol. ii. p. 37. 

 See Zoological Gardens, vol. ii. p. 96. '] 

 3 The splendour of a parrot's cage is thus described by Statius: — 



At tibi quanta domus, rutila testudine fulgens, 

 Connexusque ebori virgarum argenteus ordo, 

 Argutumque tuo stridentia limina cornu, 

 Et queruke jam sponte fores : vacat ilie beatus 

 Career. — Syh. lib. ii. 

 * Edinburgh Cabinet Library, Africa, p. 180. 5 Shaw's 'Generd! Zoology, vol. viii. p. 414. 



