500 



VAR. 1. 

 WHITE-FACED AMAZON. 



This is mentioned by Monsr. Levaillant. It 

 has the face all round the bill, to some distance, 

 white, and may by that circumstance be always 

 distinguished from the Psittacus leucocephalus, in 

 which the upper part of the front alone is white. 



There can be little doubt that many other kinds 

 of Amazon Parrots have been described in the 

 works of naturalists as constituting so many dis- 

 tinct species, which a more correct and enlarged 

 examination would reduce to varieties ; some owing 

 to a difference of sex, and others to mere acci- 

 dental alterations of colour in particular individuals. 

 It is certain that the bill in these birds varies from 

 a dark or blackish horn-colour to a dull or yellow- 

 ish white ; while the red on the shoulders is some- 

 times mixed with yellow, and sometimes entirely 

 changed to that colour: nay the whole bird oc- 

 casionally varies into yellow ; and Monsr. Le- 

 vaillant even goes so far as to maintain that there 

 is no kind of red or green Parrot that is not liable 

 to vary into the above-mentioned colour. There 

 is therefore reason for supposing that even the 

 Psittacus Paradisi of Linnaeus may be nothing 

 more than a yellow variety, with the major part of 

 the plumage fringed or edged with orange-colour 

 or red; and the Psittacus Aurora may be con- 



