SWIFT PABRAEEET. 35 



much, of the disappointment and failure that attended our early efforts 

 in the pursuit of aviculture will be avoided, and success crown the 

 attempt of even the tyro in the occupation, which is of such an en- 

 grossing nature that, we firmly believe, once it has been fairly taken 

 up, it will never be entirely abandoned while life and health endure. 



How we have digressed to be sure, and how far we have left our 

 Swifts behind us! Well, they are such nice birds, and we were and 

 are so anxious that amateurs should make a trial of breeding them 

 in this changeable climate of ours, that the object of our digression 

 will, we trust, obtain us pardon for its length. 



The Swift Parrakeet differs considerably from its congeners in the 

 shape of its wings, the primaries of which are narrow, and more than 

 twice the length, of the secondaries, consequently its flight is not only 

 very powerful, but widely undulating in character; in fact so rapid is 

 the progress of one of these birds through the air, that none but a 

 most experienced shot could hope to bring it down. 



The peculiar shape of the wings has caused more than one scientist 

 to separate the Swift from the rest of the family, and constitute it a 

 genus, of which it remains the only known species: but such minute 

 distinctions are confusing and unnecessary, and nave, very wisely, been 

 discarded by many modern ornithologists, especially by Dr. Euss, who, 

 recognising but one genus, distinguishes the various members of the 

 Parrot family from one another, by specific names only; whether they 

 be Cockatoos, Lories, Parrakeets or Parrots proper; their one generic 

 appellation in the pages of his invaluable works is Psittacus : an 

 arrangement that should at once commend itself to every thoughtful 

 ornithologist, as there can then no longer be a doubt as to what family 

 a bird with this prefix belongs. 



In bird nomenclature, as in every other subject of popular study, 

 simplicity and uniformity should, as far as possible, be the order of 

 the day, and Dr. Russ has taken a right step in this direction, for 

 which, the thanks of all students of ornithology are due to him; and 

 as his works become better known, and, consequently, properly appre- 

 ciated, the horrible jargon, compounded of sonorous but too frequently 

 inappropriate Greek and Latin words, will fall into well-merited ob- 

 livion, and birds be classed, as plants are, in "natural orders" rather 

 than in genera, founded on trivial, or even imaginary distinctions. 



The Swift is an example of the fact observed by many naturalists 

 that while Parrots of the same species are found at great distances 

 from each other when they are inhabitants of a continent, in islands 

 each little sea-engirt morsel of land maintains one or more species 

 peculiar to itself, and unknown even to other islets of the same group, 



