OF PARROTS. 



93 



of Parrots seen in its woods. These, however, 

 were far inferior to the numbers and variety that 

 presented themselves to the first adventurers in 

 the New World. Some of the islands there were 

 called the Parrot Isles, from the great flocks of 

 these birds which were found upon them. They 

 constituted the first article of commerce between 

 the inhabitants of the Old and New Continents. In 

 these regions every forest swarmed with them ; and 

 the Rook is not better known in Europe, than was 

 the Parrot in the East and West Indies, as well as 

 in the different territories of South America. In all 

 the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, they are 

 found in great variety and abundance, and they 

 add to the splendoiu- of those woods, which Nature 

 has dressed in eternal green. 



Parrots may be separated into two great divisions, 

 those of the Old and those of the New World ; the 

 former into Cockatoos, Parrots, Lories, and Parra- 

 keets ; the latter into Aras, or Maccaws, Amazons, 

 Criks, and Popinjays. The Lories inhabit the 

 Moluccas, New Guinea, and other Asiatic islands. 

 They do not occur in America. Owing to their 

 powerless flight, their migrations are very confined, 

 and the birds of this tribe inhabiting one island of 

 an archipelago are often of a different species from 

 those of a neighbouring one. There is a short-tailed 

 Parrakeet in South America called the Touis, which 

 is the smallest of all the tribe. They are not larger 

 than a House Sparrow, and are generally incapable 

 of acquiring speech. 



