P. severus, Lath. Ste. Maracana, or Brazilian Green Maccaw. Green, with naked cheeks, purple-brown front, and blue wings and tail feathers, which are dusky red be neath. Size of a pigeon, and about seventeen inches long. Native of Brazil, where it appears in large flocks, and proves injurious to the coffee plantations. It soon becomes familiar with persons whom it sees frequently, and is pleased in receiving and repaying their caresses; but it has an aversion to strangers, and also particularly to children, and flies at them with great fury. It is ex ceedingly jealous, and, on seeing a young child sharing the caresses of its mistress, it tries to dart at the infant, but, as its flight is short and laborious, it can only exhibit its displeasure by angry gestures and restless movements, and continues in evident torment till the child is let go, and the bird received again into favour by being placed on its owner's finger. It is then overjoyed, murmurs sa tislaction, and sometimes makes a noise exactly like the laugh of an old person. It is likewise very impatient of the company of other parrots, insomuch, that if one be lodged in the same room with itself, it seems to enjoy no comfort. It eats almost every article of human food, and is particularly fond of bread, beef, fried fish, pastry, and sugar. It cracks nuts with its bill, and picks them dex terously with its claws. It does not chew the softer fruits, but sucks them by forcing the tongue against the up per mandible, but the harder sorts of food, as bread, pastry, Ekc. it bruises by pressing the tip of the lower mandible on the most hollow part of the upper.
P. Guianensis, Lath. Pavouane Parrot, or Pavouane Parrakeet. Green, with naked whitish orbits; ridge of the shoulders, and under wing-coverts red, and quill and tail feathers yellowish beneath. Of the length of twelve in ches. Native of Cayenne and the Antilles, where it is not uncommon, assembling in large troops, and making the air incessantly resound with their shrill and piercing cries. They are particularly fond of the fruit of Erythrina coral lodendron, and make great havock in the 'coffee planta tions, as they eat the pulp of the berry, and, like the other parrots, reject the bean, which they drop on the ground. Though not easily reclaimed, they have sometimes been rendered familiar and taught to speak; and Levaillant quotes one which was so docile as to lie on its back, with its feet clasped together, and, in this attitude, repeat the Lord's Prayer in Dutch. The same author remarks, that the pavouane parrot varies considerably, both in size and colour, according to the regions in which it occurs. He, moreover, makes an important observation relative to the long-tailed tribe of the family in general, namely, that in a state of domestication, it not unfrequently happens, that the genuine shape of the tail is so materially injured or altered in its proportions, by moulting, as to create a degree of uncertainty to which of the divisions the species belongs. Hence many of the mistakes into which Buffon
has been betrayed in his exposition of this department of ornithology ; and hence the propriety of obtaining, if pos sible, specimens in their truly natural or wild state.
P. Alexandri, Lin. &c. P. dscilis, Via. Alexan drine, or Ring Parrakeet. Green, with red hind collar and shoulder stripe, and black fore collar and throat. Size of a common pigeon, and general length about fifteen inches. This elegant species, which has long maintained a distinguished reputation for its docility and imitative powers, is supposed to have been the only bird of the par rot kind known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, hav ing been brought from Ceylon after the Indian expeditions of Alexander the Great. In the reign of Nero, the Ro mans first became acquainted with other species, which they obtained from various parts of Africa. They lodged these birds in superb cages, ornamented with silver, tor toise-shell, and ivory ; and the price of a parrot often ex ceeded that of a slave. It was in commemoration of one of the present species belonging to Corinna, that Ovid composed his celebrated elegy. So ardent are the male and female in their attachment, that V ieillot entertains little doubt of their breeding in Europe, provided a tro pical temperature be maintained in the aviary. There are several varieties, as the Rose-ringed, Double-ringed, Purple-ringed, Blue-collared, Javan, Blue-headed, Jon quil, Sulphur, &c.
B. With tails more or less short and even P. gigas, Lath. Cacatua aterrima,Vicil. Black C'ocka too, or Great Black Cockatoo. Grey-black ; head crested ; cheeks red and naked. The female is of a paler cast. Equal in size to the great scarlet maccaw. The tongue is hollow at the tip, so as to constitute a sort of tube or trunk, assisting the bird in the act of taking its food, and of penetrating into the substance of fruits, &c. In cold weather the bird covers the bare space on each side of the bill, by lowering over it the plumes of the crest. It is a native of Ceylon.
P. cristatus, Lin. Lath. including P. rosaceus of the latter. Broad-crested Cockatoo, Great Red-crested Cock atoo, Yellow-crested Cockatoo, or White-crested Parrot of Aldrovandus. White, with expansile crest, that of the male red beneath. This is an elegant species, of the size of the common domestic fowl, with a very light tinge of rose-colour on the head and breast, and of yellow on the inner wing-coverts and tail feathers. On the head is a very ample crest, consisting of large and long feathers of different extent, arched over the whole head, and which the bird can raise or depress at pleasure. Native of the Malacca islands. It is of a mild and gentle disposition, but can rarely be tempted to articulate any other word than cockatoo, which, like some of its congeners, it does with great distinctness.