3 6 g Tie Hifiory of ANIMALS. 
and round ; they hand near one another at the upper part of the beak, near the fea¬ 
thers : the region of the temples is white, naked, and wrinkled. 
The back, the beginning of the wings, the throat, the bread:, belly, thighs, and 
the upper part of the tail, are all of the moft ftrong and beautiful fcarlet imaginable: 
the large wing-feathers are alfo of the fame bright colour on their infide, but the fe- 
cond feries of the feathers covering the wings are yellow, with purple edges, and they 
have each a little and beautiful eye, or round fpot of blue near the extremity: the 
upper furface of the long feathers of the wings, and the lower part of the rump, are 
of a beautiful blue, and the tinge is very elegant. 
The legs are fhort, but they are very robuft and flrong ; they are of a dufkv grey- 
i(h colour : the toes are long and ftrong, and are armed with very long, fharp and 
black claws. 
This is very common in the Eaft Indies, and in fome parts of America. It is 
fometimes brought over alive to us, but is not eafily kept fo, unlefs great care be taken 
to preferve it from the cold in winter, and at beft it lofes a great deal of it’s fpirit and 
vivacity with us: it is, when native, one of the nimbleft birds in the world, but, 
with us, there hardly is a flower creature in all it’s motions: it indeed appears torpid 
and frozen, to a numbnefs of it’s limbs. It will be taught to imitate the human voice, 
and is often very docile. It lives, in it’s wild date, in thick woods, and builds in the 
decayed trunks of trees; it lays four eggs perfectly white, and of the fhape and fize 
of thofe of the pigeon, and it’s young are a great while before they arrive at their 
beauty. Moft of the writers on birds have defcribed it. Aldrovand calls it Pfittacus 
maximus alter. Gefner, Pfittacus maximus puniceo-casruleus; and Ray, Willughby, 
and others have borrowed one or other of thefe names. We call it the Macao and 
Cockatoon. 
Pfitaccus temporibus nudis Icevibus , capite miniaceo. 
Tkhe ficarlet-headed Pfittacus , with naked, fimooth 
temples . 
%l)t reD ijcaaets 
U9acm 
This 'alfo is a very beautiful bird; it is of the fize of the raven, and very ele¬ 
gantly variegated with colours of an extream brightnefs: the head is large, and of a 
beautiful bright fcarlet : the beak is very large, and is not fo e&treamly bent as in the 
other fpecies; it is very confiderably hooked, indeed, but it does not form a femicir- 
cle: the upper chap is white, and the lower one black, and the upper one is confi¬ 
derably longer than the other: the noftrils are fmall and round; they ftand near one 
another, and are fituated at the bafe of the beak, near it’s infertion at the head; 
and from the bafe of the beak to beyond the eyes there are no feathers, but the head 
is fo far covered only with a whitifh fkin, which is thick and tough, but not 
wrinkled. 
The breaft and belly are of the fame elegant fcarlet colour with the head : the 
wings and the tail are very beautifully variegated with red, yellow, and blue: the tail 
is very long and very beautiful; it is of a fine fky-blue, and the two principal or mid¬ 
dle feathers are acuminated at the end. 
This is very frequent in the Eaft, and is alfo a native of many parts of America: 
it is eafily kept alive with us, and learns to imitate the human voice very readily. It 
bears the cold of our climate better than any of the other fpecies; fo well indeed, that 
the late Duke of Richmond had a number of them wild in his garden, where they 
kept on the trees in a remote part of the grove, near a houfe at which they were fed, 
and in which there was a German ftove for warmth ; they came into this, when they 
pleafed, and were fo happy and fo healthful, that they built and laid their eggs there, 
but they never hatched any young. They did not build, as in America, in the trees, 
but probably, on account of the warmth, kept in the houfe: the neft was in fome 
corner of the ground; the eggs were only two, at the moft three, and were white, 
and much like pigeons eggs. While the hen fat upon thefe, the cock would walk 
i ’ before 
