PLATE XCVIII. 



degree ; it is indeed said to be a more skilful imitator of the sounds 

 of the human voice than any of the Parrot tribe, and that in whistling 

 and singing it is equally excellent ; possessing, as it does, this faculty 

 of speaking, and in some degree of associating ideas with the expres- 

 sion of the voice, it is regarded by the Indians, in those countries 

 which it inhabits, with a kind of superstitious veneration, and being 

 of a tractable and familiar disposition, is easily brought to a state of 

 domestication as an inmate and companion in their dwellings. Its 

 food is of the vegetable kind, and it is observed to be in particular fond 

 of grapes and cherries. This species inhabits Java, where it is called 

 Maynoa ; it is also a native of China, figures of it appearing among 

 the birds of that country published by the Chinese themselves, and 

 also in the Japanese books on Natural History as a native of 

 Japan. 



In point of size this bird may be compared with the European 

 Blackbird ; the length is about ten inches, the body rather robust, the 

 bill and legs rather long, and the tail short. The general colour of 

 the plumage is black, glossed with blue, and changeable in various 

 directions of the light to green and purple. The colour of the bill 

 is orange, and of the legs brown ; from the base of the bill, or some- 

 times rather from beneath the eye, extends a broad line or band, 

 bare of feathers, of a yellowish colour, and which passing behind 

 the region of the eye, forms a continued band round the hind 

 part of the head ; the colour of this naked band, though yellowish 

 in general, becomes of a flesh colour, or heightens to a deep red, 

 when the animal is irritated. With the exception of this band, the 

 only diversity of the plumage consists in a broad white band which 

 passes across the «iiddle of the wing. 



