DUSKY PABBOT. 
Ill 
Cockatoos; Psittacince, the Parrots proper; Conurince, the Long-tailed 
Parrakeets; and Psittacalince, or Dwarf Parrots — an arrangement which 
has no doubt its advantages, but which is, nevertheless, somewhat too 
condensed, especially with regard to the fourth division, which includes 
in it such widely differing birds as the Ring-necked Bengal Parrakeet, 
and the Green Leek of the Australian colonists. 
The Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dutton' s account of the 
Dusky Pionus (Pionus violaceus). 
This bird is the same size as the Red-vented Pionus. Its feathers 
are dark grey, almost black, tinged with violet. Precisely the same 
remark applies to it that apply to the former bird. The one I kept 
was tame and gentle, but showed no disposition to learn. I had it 
as a nestling, and I am not sure but that it did know me apart from 
others. At any rate it made an incipient noise when I was in the 
room. I had to feed it, and I suppose it found it less trouble to be 
stuffed by me than to feed itself — at any rate its clamour for me to 
come and feed it was incessant. 
I saw the other day a Pionus senilis, which is very like the Dusky 
Pionus, only that it has a white forehead, which could whisper “Pretty 
Polly” in a very small voice. This is the only case I have known 
of a Pionus talking. Its price was £2. It was very tame, and when 
I say that I love a tame bird, and did not buy it, I give my opinion 
of Pionuses more plainly than if I took pages in which to state it. 
They are really too dull. 
