NEW GUINEA ECLEGTUS, 93 



From these various descriptions of both, the male and female Lin- 

 nean Eclecti, and especially from the coloured plate, a very correct 

 idea of the birds may be formed by readers who have not chanced to 

 have seen them in the flesh, but they must be heard to be appreciated 

 as they deserve ; and although we adhere to the exactitude of the 

 following description, we beg all who read these lines to suspend their 

 judgment until they have had an opportunity of forming their own 

 conclusions from personal observation. 



"The Eclectus", continues the former writer, "is capable of being 

 rendered very tame, and learns readily to imitate not only domestic 

 sounds, but even occasionally the various words and expressions that 

 are addressed to it, as well as to whistle. Bat when its beauty and 

 accomplishments have been fully enumerated and dwelt upon, the question 

 arises, Are these enough to counterbalance the appalling hideousness 

 of its truly demoniacal yells? Scarcely, we think; and for our part 

 we are quite content to leave the Eclecti, polyclilorus, grandis, and the 

 rest of them to Zoological Gardens, where their maddening shrieks are 

 not much less terrible than those of their neighbours, the Glaucous 

 Macaws and the Orange- and White-crested Cockatoos. 



"It is not pretended, however, that a quiet, sedate, even silent 

 specimen of this species is not to be encountered now and then; but 

 all we can say is, that we have not as yet been fortunate enough to 

 meet with one; and until we do we have no room for either of these 

 birds (male and female) in our collection, whence doubtless our 

 neighbours would soon insist upon their expulsion/'' 



It will be noticed that while the owner of 'Sir Garnet' hastened to 

 vindicate the character of his favourite, as regards the possession of 

 personal beauty, he was silent in respect to the more serious imputation 

 against what may be called its moral side ; a fact that speaks volumes 

 for the correctness of the estimate from which we have quoted above. 



Why German writers should have bestowed upon these birds in 

 particular the appellation of noble Parrots (Edelpapagei), is somewhat 

 curious; for, at least in our opinion, they are not nearly as distingue 

 looking as the Cockatoos, for instance, or even as the Amazons, par- 

 ticularly the larger species of that genus. 



In the Zoological Society's "List" the Eclecti occupy the third 

 place in the sub-family to which they are allocated, that of the Palce- 

 ornithince, family Palceornithidce, order Psittaci, constituting the genus 

 Eclectus, of which three species have been exhibited at different times 

 in the Parrot House, and of which several examples survive to the 

 present day; particularly a remarkably fine pair of Linnean Eclecti, 

 which were for eighteen months domiciled in a large aviary in the 



