HISTORY OP THE PARROTS. 
79 
eil to give that satisfaction to the eye which a more 
chastened, or rather a less abrupt, intermixture of 
tints is wont to produce, still we think no one can 
examine or look at some of the gorgeously decked 
Maccaws, the splendid and effulgent Lories, or the 
diversified tints of the Australian Parrakeets, with- 
out acknowledging them to be among the most 
beautiful and striking of the feathered race. 
In the first, second, and fifth subfamilies, the ground 
or prevailing colour is green, generally of a lively 
tint, and varying from grass to sap and emerald-green, 
as expressed in Syme’s Nomenclature of Colours. 
Upon this groundwork, patches of almost every 
known or possible hue are to he found in one or 
other of the species. In the subfamily Plyctolophnia 
alone we meet with a more uniform and plain attire, 
the true cockatoos being white, or white tinged 
more or less with rosy red or pale yellow'. The other 
forms in this group are black or greenish-black, some- 
times relieved with large masses of red or yellow 
upon the tail. In texture the plumage may be called 
firm, close, and adpressed, in some species even as- 
suming a scaled or titled appearance. The general 
form of the Psittacidte may be stated as short, strong, 
and compact, but as deficient in elegance, in the 
short and even-tailed species, in which the great 
bulk of the head and bill seems disproportioned to 
the rest of the body. In the parrakeets, this dispro- 
portion is done away with, or at least in a great de- 
gree counteracted by the elongation of the tail, and 
