PAROQUET, PARRAREEV, or PARROQUET, a name very commonly given to many of the smaller species of the parrot family; generally to species having long tails, and natives of the East Indies, Africa, and Australia, not so frequently to American species; although it is sometimes also applied to some of these, indifferently with the name par rot.—One of the most beautiful groups of the psittacidte, combining gracefulness of form with splendor of plumage, is that to 'which the ALEXANDIrDSA PAROQUET or Rirat PAROQUET (Pahrornis Alexandra) belongs. It is about the size of a common pigeon, green, with a red collar, whence its name ring paroquet, and is a native of the East Indies. It is said to have been brought to Europe by some of the members of Alexander the great's expedition to India, and to have been the first of the parrot tribe known to the Greeks and Romans, by whom it was highly prized, as it still is, not only for, its beauty, but for its docility and its power of imitating human speech. Like many of its tribe, it is gregarious, and immense flocks make their abode in some of the cocoa-nut groves of the western parts of Ceylon, filling the air with the most deafening screams. The ring paroquet has many congeners, natives chiefly of the East Indies, exhibiting much variety of splendid plumage.—Somewhat like them in length and form of tail, but with longer and stronger legs, is the GROUND PAnOQUET, or GnouNn PARROT (Pezopho rus formosus), of Australia, a bird very common in all the southern parts of New Holland and in Van Dicmau's Land, inhabiting scrubs or ground covered with very low underwoed.
Its habits are very unlike those of parrots in general; it runs along the ground, and even se!ks to escape from enemies by running, unwillingly takes wing, and then only for a short low flight. It makes no nest., but lays' its eggs in a hole in the ground. It is a small bird, not much more than 12 hi. in entire length, one half of which is occupied by the tail; its color, dark green above, yellowish below, less brilliant than in many of the parrot tribe, but finely marked and mottled. Its flesh has a very strong !;ante flavor. There are numerous other Australian species, distributed in several genera, sonic of which, although less exclusively than that just noticed, live and seek their food on the ground. Some of them exhibit the greatest splendor of plumage. The only one we shall notice is the ZEBRA PAROQUET (Melopsittacus undulataa), a very beautiful little species which has often been brought to England, and has sometimes bred in it. In the vast inland plains of Australia, this paroquet is to be seen in flocks of many hundreds feeding on the seeds of the grasses, which afford food also to many other small species.