AOUROU PARROT. 



509 



what less vivid. Native of Guiana, where it is 

 very common. 



It is to this species, according to Monsr. Le- 

 vaillant, that the Psittacus agilis of Linnaeus or 

 Little Green Parrot^ Edwards PL 168. is to be re- 

 ferred; Monsr. Levaillant supposing it to be no 

 other than the Aouro couraou in its young state, 

 and consequently an imaginary species. Against 

 this supposition, however, militates the assertion 

 of Edwards, its first describer, who says, " I kept 

 it alive some years ; it was a brisk, lively, nimble 

 bird, and talkative in a language unknown to me.'* 

 Now it seems probable that had it been, as Monsr. 

 Levaillant supposes, a young bird, or in its first 

 years of plumage, it would afterwards have gra- 

 dually exhibited the proper colours of its species. 

 It remains, however, to give an abridgement of 

 the description of Edwards, and to leave the sci- 

 entific ornithologist to judge for himself on the 

 subject. 



" This bird is about the size of a small Pigeon : 

 the bill of a light ash-colour : round each eye is a 

 small space of bare skin of a light ash-colour : the 

 whole head, neck, and body, both above and be- 

 neath, are of a green colour, though lighter and 

 more inclining to yellow on the throat, breast, 

 belly, thighs and coverts under the tail: the greater 

 quills of the wings are of a dusky or black colour, 

 their outer webs being blue almost to their tips: 

 the remainder of the quills next the back are 

 green: amongst the first row of covert-feathers 

 there is one red feather, which falls over the bot- 



