DUSKY PARROT. Ill 



Cockatoos; Psittacince, the Parrots proper; Conurince, the Long-tailed 

 Parrakeets; and Psittacalinoe, or Dwarf Parrots — an arrangement which, 

 has no doubt its advantages, but which is, nevertheless, somewhat too 

 condensed, especially with regard to the fourth division, which includes 

 in it such widely differing birds as the Ring-necked Bengal Parrakeet, 

 and the Green Leek of the Australian colonists. 



The Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dutton's account of the 

 Dusky Pionus (Pionus violaceus). 



This bird is the same size as the Red- vented Pionus. Its feathers 

 are dark grey, almost black, tinged with violet. Precisely the same 

 remark applies to it that apply to the former bird. The one I kept 

 was tame and gentle, but showed no disposition to learn. I had it 

 as a nestling, and I am not sure but that it did know me apart from 

 others. At any rate it made an incipient noise when I was in the 

 room. I had to feed it, and I suppose it found it less trouble to be 

 stuffed by me than to feed itself — at any rate its clamour for me to 

 come and feed it was incessant. 



I saw the other day a Pionus senilis, which is very like the Dusky 

 Pionus, only that it has a white forehead, which could whisper "Pretty 

 Polly" in a very small voice. This is the only case I have known 

 of a Pionus talking. Its price was £2. It was very tame, and when 

 I say that I love a tame bird, and did not buy it, I give my opinion 

 of Pionuses more plainly than if I took pages in which to state it. 

 They are really too dull. 



