HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 
81 
used, like the foot, as an organ of prehension and 
support. The pointed and ample wing, which we 
perceive to prevail among the parrots, indicates a 
corresponding power of flight ; and accordingly we 
learn from those who have enjoyed the enviable op- 
portunity of seeing and studying them in their na- 
tive wilds, that it is rapid, elegant, and vigorous, 
capable of being long sustained, and that many of 
the species are in the habit of describing circles and 
other aerial evolutions, previous to their alighting 
upon the trees which contain their food. Thus A u- 
dubon, in his account of the Carolina Parrakeet, says, 
“ Their flight is rapid, straight, and continued through 
the forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accom- 
panied by inclinations of the body, which enable the 
observer to see alternately their upper and under 
parts. They deviate from a direct course only when 
impediments occur, such as trunks of trees or hou es, 
in which case they glance aside in a very graceful 
manner, as much as may be necessary. A general 
cry is kept up by the party, and it is seldom that 
one of these birds is on wing for ever so short a 
space, without uttering its cry. On reaching a spot 
which affords a supply of food, instead of alighting 
at once, as many birds do, the parakeets take a 
good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over it 
in circles of great extent, first above the trees, and 
then gradually lowering, until they almost touch the 
ground, when, suddenly reascending, they all settle 
on the tree that bears the fruit of which they are in 
F 
