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CAS

REESE LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Received

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THE

NATURALIST'S LIBRARY.

EDITED BY

SIR WILLIAM JARDINE, BART.

F.R.S.E., F.L.S., ETC. ETC.

VOL. X.

(Drnithologg.

PARROTS.
BY PRIDEAUX JOHN SELBY, ESQ.,

F.R.S.E., F.L.S., M.W.S., ETC,

THE

. i I NTVEKSITY

tl o n o o n :
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY.

BIOLOGY

UBRART

6

CONTENTS.

PAGB

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK 17

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARROTS, or Family Psrr-

TACID^E 73

Genus PAL^ORNIS 87

Barraband Ring- Parakeet.

Palceornis Barrabandi. Plate I. . . .89

Alexandrine Ring-Parrakeet.

Palceornis Alexandri. Plate II. ... 92

Malacca.Ring-Parrakeet.

Palceornis Malaccensis. Plate III. ... 95

Patagonian Arara.

A rara Patagonica. Plate IV. . . .99

Carolina Arara.

Arara Carelinensis .... . 101

The Great Green Maccaw.

Macrocercus militaris. Plate V. . . .107

Blue and Yellow Maccaw.

Macrocercus ararautw. Plate VI. . . .110

Red and Blue Maccaw.

Macrocercus Aracanga. Plate VII. . . .115

CONTENTS.

'•GB
Noble Parrot- Maccaw.

Psittacara nolilis. Plate VIII. . . . 117
Festive Parrot.

Psittacus festivus. Plate IX 122

Amazons' Parrot.

Psittacus Amazonius 123

Ash-coloured or Grey Parrot.

Psittacus erythacus. Plate X. ., . . 12G

Grand Electus.

Electus grandis 132

Le Vaillant's Pionus.

Pionus Le Vaillantii . . . . .133

Swindern's Love- Bird.

Agapornis Swinderianus. Plate XI. . . 138

Southern Nestor.

Nestor hypopolius. Plate XII. . . . 141
Tricolour-crested Cockatoo.

PlyctoLoplms Leadbeateri. Plate XIII. . . 14«
Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo,

Plyctolophus sulphureus. Plate XIV. . . 14Q
Stellated. Geringore.

Calyptorynchus stettatus. Plate XV. . . 154

Goliah.Aratoo.

Microglossus aterrimus. Plate XVI. . .* 158
Pesquet's Dasyptilus.

Lusyptilus Pequetti. Plate XVII. . . .160

Purple-capped Lory.

Lorius domicellus. Plate XVIII. . . 16G

Papuan Lory.

C/tarmosyna Papuensis. Plate XIX. . . 169
Plae-bellied Lorikeet.

Trichoglossus Swainsonii. Plate XX. . . 173

CONTENTS.

PAGB
Varied Lorikeet.

Trichoglossus versicolor. Plate XXI. . . 177
Orange-winged Lorikeet.

Trickoglossus pyrrlwpterus. Plate XXII. . . 179

Kuhl's Coriphilus.

Coriphilus Kuhlii. Plate XXIII. ... 184

Sapphire-crowned Psittacule.

Ps-ittaculus galgulus. Plate XXIV. . . 187

Pennantian Broad-tail.

Platycercus Pennantii. Plate XXV. . . 193

Pale-headed Broad-tail.

Platycercus pdliceps. Plate. XX VI. . . 196

Blue-headed Nanodes.

Nanodes venustus. Plate XXVII. . . . 199

Undulated Nanodes.

Nanodes undulatus. Plate XXVIII. . .201

Ground Parrot.

Pezoporus formosus. Plate XXIX. . . 203

Red-cheeked Nymphicus.

NympUcus Novae Hollandice. Plate XXX. . 206

PORTRAIT OF THOMAS BEWICK .... 2
Vignette Title-page.

In all TJdrtu-two Plates in this Volume.

MEMOIR

OF

THOMAS BEWICK

MEMOIR

THOMAS BEWICK,

EMINENT ENGRAVER ON WOOD.
T\

f

7r, :
"NIVEliaiTY

ALTHOUGH the Biographical Notices prefixed to
these volumes have hitherto been confined to Scien-
tific Naturalists, yet, as no one perhaps has contri-
buted more essentially to promote the study of Zoo-
logy, in two of its most important branches, than the
ingenious Artist whose name stands at the head of
this article, it appears no more than an act of justice
to offer, in this way, a respectful tribute to his me-
mory.

Though the art of cutting or engraving on wood
is undoubtedly of high antiquity, as the Chinese and
Indian modes of printing on paper, cotton, and silk,
sufficiently prove ; though, even in Europe, the ait

p

]8 MEMOIR C5F TROMAS BEWICK.

of engraving on blocks of wood may probably be
traced higher than that of printing usually so called
and though, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
designs were executed of great beauty and accuracy,
such as Holbein's " Dance of Death," the vignettes
and head-letters of the early Missals and Bibles,
and the engravings of flowers and shells in Ge-
rard, Gesner, and Fuhschius ; yet the bare inspec-
tion of these is sufficient to prove that Uieir me-
thods must have been very different from that which
Bewick and his school have followed. The princi-
pal characteristic of the ancient masters is the cross-
ing of the black lines, to produce or deepen the shade,
commonly called cross-hatching. Whether this was
done by employing different blocks, one after ano-
ther, as in calico-printing and paper-staining, it may
be difficult to say ; but to produce them on the same
block is so difficult and unnatural, that, though Nes-
bit, one of Bewick's early pupils, attempted it on a
few occasions, and the splendid print of Dentatus by
Harvey shews that it is not impossible even on a large
scale, yet the waste of time and labour is scarcely
worth the effect produced.

To understand this, it may be necessary to state,
for the information of those who may not have seen
an engraved block of wood, that whereas the lines

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 19

which are sunk hy the graver on the surface of a
copper-plate are the parts which receive the printing
ink, which is first smeared over the whole plate, and
the superfluous ink is scraped and rubbed off, that re-
maining in the lines being thus transferred upon the
paper, by its being passed, together with the plate,
through a rolling-press, the rest being left white —
in the wooden block, all the parts which are intend-
ed to leave the paper white, are carefully scooped
out with burins and gouges, and the lines and other
parts of the surface of the block which are left pro-
minent, after being inked, like types, with a ball or
roller, are transferred to the paper by the common
printing-press. The difficulty, therefore, of picking
out, upon the wooden block, the minute squares or
lozenges, which are formed by the mere intersection
of the lines cut in the copper-plate, may easily be
conceived.

The great advantage of wood-engraving is, that
the thickness of the blocks (which are generally of
boxwood, sawed across the grain) being carefully
regulated by the height of the types with which
they are to be used, are set up in the same page
with the types ; and only one operation is required
to print the letter- press and the cut which is to il-
lustrate it. The greater permanency, and indeed

£0 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

almost indestructibility,* of the wooden block, is be-
sides secured ; since it is not subjected to the scrap-
ing and rubbing, which so soon destroys the sharp-
ness of the lines upon copper : and there is a har-
mony produced in the page, by the engraving and
the letter-press being of the same colour ; which is
very seldom the case where copper-plate vignettes
are introduced with letter-press.

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to trace the his-
tory of wood-engraving, its early principles, the
causes of its decay, &c , till its productions came to
sink below contempt. But for its revival and pre-
sent state we are unquestionably indebted to Bewick
and his pupils.

THOMAS BEWICK was born August 12. 1753, at
Cherry-Burn, in the parish of Ovingham, and coun-
ty of Northumberland. His father, John Bewick,
had for many years a landsale colliery at Mickley-
Bank, now in the possession of his son William.
John Bewick, Thomas's younger brother, and coad-

* Many of Mr Bewick's blocks have printed upwards of
300,000 : the head-piece of the Newcastle Courant above a
million ; and a small vignette for a capital letter in the
Newcastle Chronicle, during a period of twenty years, at
least two millions.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 91

jutor with him in many of his works, was born in
1760 — unfortunately for the arts and for society, of
which he was an ornament, died of a consumption,
at the age of thirty- five.

The early propensity of Thomas to ohserve natu-
ral objects, and particularly the manners and habits
of animals, and to endeavour to express them by
drawing, in which, without tuition, he manifested
great proficiency at an early age, determined his
friends as to the choice of a profession for him. He
was bound apprentice, at the age of fourteen, to Mr
Ralph Beilby of Newcastle, a respectable copper-
plate engraver, and very estimable man.* Mr Bewick
might have had a master of greater eminence, but
he could not have had one more anxious to encou-
rage the rising talents of his pupil, to point out to

* It is stated by the author of " The Pursuit of Know-
ledge under Difficulties," forming a part of the Library of
Entertaining Knowledge (we know not on what authority,
but we think it probable,) that he was in the habit of ex-
ercising his genius by covering the walls and doors of his
native village with sketches in chalk of his favourites of
the lower creation with great accuracy and spirit ; and that
some of these performances chancing to attract Mr Beil-
by's notice, as he was passing through Cherry- Burn, he was
so much struck with the talent which they displayed, that
he immediately sought out the young artist, and obtained
his father's permission to take him with him as his ap-
prentice.

22 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

bim his peculiar line of excellence, and to enjoy with-
out jealousy his merit and success, even when it ap-
peared, in some respects, to throw himself into the
shade. When Mr Charles Hutton, afterwards the
eminent Professor Hutton of Woolwich, but then
a schoolmaster in Newcastle, was preparing, in 1770,
his great work on Mensuration, he applied to Mr
Beilhy to engrave on copper-plates the mathemati-
cal figures for the work. Mr Beilby judiciously ad-
vised that they should be cut on wood, in which
case, each might accompany, on the same page, the
proposition it was intended to illustrate. He em-
ployed his young apprentice to execute many of
these ; and the beauty and accuracy with which
they were finished, led Mr Beilby to advise him
strongly to devote his chief attention to the improve-
ment of this long-lost art. Several mathematical
works were supplied, about this time, with very
beautiful diagrams ; particularly Dr Enfield's trans-
lation of Rossignol's Elements of Geometry.

On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he visited
the metropolis for a few months, and was, during
this short period, employed by an engraver in the
vicinity of Hatton-Garden. But London, with all
its gaieties and temptations, had no attractions for
Bewick : he panted for the enjoyment of his native

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 2'1

air, and for indulgence in his accustomed rural habits.
On his return to the North, he spent a short time in
Scotland, and afterwards became his old master's
partner, while John, his brother, was taken as their
joint-apprentice.

About this time, Mr Thomas Saint, the printer
of the Newcastle Courant, projected an edition of
Gay's Fables, and the Bewicks were engaged to
furnish the cuts. One of these, " The Old Hound,"
obtained the premium of the Society of Arts, for the
best specimen of wood-engraving, in 1775. An
impression of this may be seen in the Memoir pro*
fixed to " Select Fables," printed for Charnley, New-
castle, in 1820; from which many notices in the
present Memoir are taken. Mr Saint, in , 1776,
published also a work entitled, Select Fables, with
Jin indifferent set of cuts, probably by some inferior
artist ; but in 1779 came out a new edition of Gay,
and, in 1784, of the Select Fables, with an entire
new set of cuts, by the Bewicks.

It has been already said, that Thomas Bewick,
from his earliest youth, was a close observer and ac-
curate delineator of the forms and habits of animals ;
and, during his apprenticeship, and indeed through-
out his whole life, he neglected no opportunity of
visiting and drawing such foreign animals as were

24 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

exhibited in the different itinerant collections which
occasionally visited Newcastle. This led to the pro-
ject of the " History of Quadrupeds ;" a Prospectus
of which work, accompanied by specimens of seve-
ral of the best cuts then engraved, was printed and
circulated in 1787; but it was not till 1790 that
the work appeared.

In the mean time, the Prospectus had the effect
of introducing the spirited undertaker to the notice
of many ardent cultivators of natural science, parti-
cularly of Marmaduke Tunstall, Esq. of Wycliffe,
whose museum was even then remarkable for the
extent of its treasures, and for the skill with which
they had been preserved ; whose collection also of
living animals, both winged and quadruped, was very
considerable. Mr Bewick was invited to visit Wy-
cliffe, and made drawings of various specimens, liv-
ing and dead, which contributed greatly to enrich his
subsequent publications. The portraits which he
took with him of the wild cattle in Chillingham Park,
the seat of the Earl of Tankerville (whose agent, Mr
John Bailey, was also an eminent naturalist, and
very intimate friend of Mr Bewick), particularly at-
tracted Mr Tunstall's attention ; and he was very
urgent to obtain a representation, upon a larger scale
than was contemplated for his projected work> of

;7>\

l <•*",..

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 2»

Xft£4U

those now unique specimens of the " ancient Caledo-
nian breed." For this purpose, Mr BewicK made a
special visit to Chillingham, and the result was the
largest wood-cut he ever engraved; which, though it
is considered as his chef d'oeuvre, seemed, in its con-
sequences, to shew the limits within which wood-
engraving should generally be confined. The block,
after a few impressions had been taken off, split into
several pieces, and remained so till, in the year 1817,
the richly figured border having been removed, the
pieces containing the figure of the wild bull were so
firmly clamped together, as to bear the force of the
press ; and impressions may still be had. A few
proof-impressions on thin vellum of the original block,
with the figured border, have sold as high as twenty
guineas.

As it obviously required much time, as well as
labour, to collect, from various quarters, the materials
for a " General History of Quadrupeds," it is evi-
dent that much must have been done in other ways,
in the regular course of ordinary business. In a
country engraver's office, much of this requires no
record; but, during this interval, three works on
copper seem to have been executed, chiefly by Mi-
Thomas Bewick. A small quarto volume, entitled,
" A Tour through Sweden, Lapland, &c., by Matthew

26 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

Consett. Esq., accompanied by Sir G. H. Liddell,
was illustrated with engravings by Beilby and Be-
wick, the latter executing all those relating to natu-
ral history, particularly the rein-deer and their Lap-
land keepers, brought over by Sir H. Liddell, whom
he had thus the unexpected opportunity of delineat-
ing from the life. During this interval, he also drew
and engraved on copper, at the expense of their re-
spective proprietors, " The Whitley large Ox," be-
longing to Mr Edward Hall, the four quarters of
which weighed 187 stone; and "The remarkable
Kyloe Ox," bred in Mull by Donald Campbell, Esq.
and fed by Mr Robert Spearman of Rothley Park,
Northumberland. This latter is a veiy curious spe-
cimen of copper- plate engraving, combining the styles
of wood and copper, particularly in the minute man-
ner in which the verdure is executed.

At length appeared " The General History of
Quadrupeds," a work uncommonly well received by
the public, and ever since held in increased estima-
tion. Perhaps there never was a work to which the
rising generation of the day was, and no doubt that
for many years to come will be, under such obliga-
tions, for exciting in them a taste for the natural
history of animals. The representations which are
given of the various tribes, possess a boldness of de-

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. £T

sign, a correctness of outline, an exactness of attitudp,
and a discrimination of general character, which con-
vey, at the first glance, a just and lively idea of each
different animal. The figures were accompanied hy
a clear and concise statement of the nature, habits,
and disposition of each animal : these were chiefly
drawn up by his able coadjutors, Mr Beilby, his part-
ner, and his printer Mr Solomon Hodgson ; subject,
no doubt, to the corrections and additions of Mr
Bewick. In drawing up these descriptions, it was
the endeavour of the publishers to lay before their
readers a particular account of the quadrupeds of our
own country, especially of those which have so ma-
terially contributed to its strength, prosperity, and
happiness, and to notice the improvements which an
enlarged system of agriculture, supported by a noble
spirit of generous emulation, has diffused through-
out the country.

But the great and, to the public in general, unex-
pected, charm of the History of Quadrupeds, was
the number and variety of the vignettes and tail-
pieces, with which the whole volume is embellished.
Many of these are connected with the manners and
habits of the animals near which they are placed ;
others are, in some other way, connected with them,
as being intended to convey to those who avail them-

2$ MEMOIR OF THOMAS B 1C WICK.

selves of their labours, some salutary moral lesson,
as to their humane treatment ; or to expose, by per-
haps the most cutting possible satire, the crue!ty of
those who ill-treat them, But a great proportion ol
them express, in a way of dry humour peculiar to
himself, the artist's particular notions of men and
things, the passing events of the day, &c. &c. ; and
exhibit often such ludicrous, and, in a few instances,
such serious and even awful, combinations of ideas,
as could not perhaps have been developed so for-
cibly in any other way.

From the moment of the publication of this vo-
lume, the fame of Thomas Bewick was established
on a foundation not to be shaken. It has passed '
through seven large editions, with continually grow-
ing improvements.

It was observed before, that Mr Bewick's younger
brother, John, was apprenticed to Mr Beilby and
himself. He naturally followed the line of engrav-
ing so successfully struck out by his brother. At
the close of his apprenticeship, he removed to Lon-
don, where he soon became very eminent as a wood-
engraver ; indeed, in some respects, he might be
said to excel the elder Bewick. This naturally in-
duced Mr William Bulmer, the spirited proprietor
of the " Shakspeare Press," himself a Newcastle

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 29

man, to conceive the desire of giving to the world a
complete specimen of the improved arts of type and
block-printing ; and for this purpose he engaged the
Messrs Bewicks, two of his earliest acquaintances,
to engrave a set of cuts to embellish the poems of
Goldsmith, The Traveller and Deserted Village,
and Parnell's Hermit. These appeared in 1795, in
a royal quarto volume, and attracted a great share of
public attention, from the beauty of the printing and
the novelty of the embellishments, which were exe-
cuted with the greatest care and skill, after designs
made from the most interesting passages of the
poems, and were universally allowed to exceed every
thing" of the kind that had been produced before.
Indeed, it was conceived almost impossible that such
delicate effects could be obtained from blocks of
wood ; and it is said that his late Majesty (George
III.) entertained so great a doubt upon the subject,
that he ordered his bookseller, Mr G. Nicol, to pro-
cure the blocks from MrBulmer, that he might con-
vince himself of the fact.

The success of this volume induced Mr Bulmer
to print, in the same way, Somerville's Chase. The
subjects which ornament this work being entirely
composed of landscape scenery and animals, were
peculiarly adapted to display the beauties of wood-

30 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK,

engraving-. Unfortunately for the arts, it was the
last work of the younger Bewick, who died at the
close of 1795, of a pulmonary complaint, probably
contracted by too great application. He is justly
described in the monumental inscription in Oving-
ham church-yard, as " only excelled as to his inge^
imity as an artist by his conduct as a man." Pre-
viously, however, to his death, he had drawn the
whole of the designs for the Chase on the blocks,
except one •, and the whole were beautifully engraved
by his brother Thomas.

In 1797, Messrs Beilby and Bewick published
the first volume of the " History of British Birds,"
comprising the land-birds. This work contains an
account of the various feathered tribes, either con-
stantly residing in, or occasionally visiting, our islands.
While Bewick was engraving the cuts (almost all
faithfully delineated from nature), Mr Beilby was
engaged in furnishing the written descriptions. Some
unlucky misunderstandings having arisen about the
appropriation of this part of the work, a separation
of interests took place between the parties, and the
compilation and completion of the second volume,

Water-birds," devolved on Mr Bewick alone —
subject, however, to the literary corrections of the
Rev, Henry Cotes, Vicar of Bedlington. In the

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 3l

whole of this work, the drawings are minutely ac-
curate, and express the natural delicacy of feather,
down, and accompanying foliage, in a manner par-
ticularly happy. And the variety of vignettes and
tail-pieces, and the genius and humour displayed in
the whole of them (illustrating, besides, in a manner
never before attempted, the habits of the birds),
stamps a value on the work superior to the former
publication on Quadrupeds. * This also has passed

* " Of Bewick's powers, the most extraordinary is the
perfect accuracy with which he seizes and transfers to pa-
per the natural objects which it is his delight to draw. His
landscapes are absolute fac-similes; his animals are whole-
length portraits. Other books on natural history have fine
engravings ; but still, neither beast nor bird in them have
any character; dogs and deer, lark and sparrow, have all
airs and countenances marvellously insipid, and of a most
flat similitude. You may buy dear books, but if you want
to know what a bird or quadruped is, to Bewick you must
go at last. It needs only to glance at the works of Bewick,
to convince ourselves with what wonderful felicity the very
countenance and air of his animals are marked and distin-
guished. There is the grave owl, the silly wavering lap.
wing, the pert jay, the impudent over-fed sparrow, the airy
lark, the sleepy-headed gourmand duck, the restless tit-
mouse, the insignificant wren, the clean harmless gull, the
keen rapacious kite — every one has his character."

" His vignettes are just as remarkable. Take his British
Birds, and in the tail-pieces to these volumes vou shall
find the most touching representations of Nature in all her
forms, animate and inanimate. There are the poachers
tracking a hare in the snow; and the urchins who have ac-
complished the creation of a " snow-man ;" the disap-

32 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

through many editions, with and without the letter-
press.

pointed beggar leaving the gate open for the pigs and poul-
try to march over the good dame's linen, which she is lay-
ing out to dry; the thief who sees devils in every bush — a
sketch that Hogarth himself might envy; the strayed in-
fant standing at the horse's heels, and pulling his tail,
while the mother is in an agony flying over the style; the
sportsman who has slipped into the torrent; the blind man
and boy, unconscious of " Keep on this side ;" arid that
best of burlesques on military pomp, the four urchins astride
of gravestones for horses, the first blowing a glass trumpet,
and the others bedizened in tatters, with rush-caps and
wooden swords.

" Nor must we pass over his sea-side sketches, all inimi-
table. The cutter chasing the smuggler — is it not evident
that they are going at the rate of at least ten knots an hour?
The tired gulls sitting on the waves, every curled head of
which seems big with mischief. What pruning of plumage,
what stalkings, and flappings, and scratchings of the sand,
are depicted in that collection of sea-birds on the shore!
What desolation is there in that sketch of coast after a
storm, with the solitary rock, the ebb-tide, the nrab just
venturing out, and the mast of the sunken vessel standing
up through the treacherous waters ! What truth and mi-
nute nature is in that tide coming in, each wave rolling
higher than its predecessor, like a line of conquerors, and
pouring in amidst the rocks with increased aggression !
And, last and best, there are his fishing scenes. What
angler's heart but beats whenever the pool-fisher, deep in
the water, his rod bending almost double with the rush of
some tremendous trout or heavy salmon ? Who does not
recognize his boyish days in the fellow with the " set rods,'*
sheltering himself from the soaking rain behind an ol<J
tree ? What fisher has not seen yon " old codger," sitting
by the river side, peering over his tackle, and putting on a
brandling ?

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. ££

Mr Bewick's next works were on a larger scale :
four very spirited and accurate representations of a
zebra, an elephant, a lion, and a tiger, from the col-
lection and for the use of Mr Pidcock, the celebrat-
ed exhibitor of wild beasts. A few impressions
were taken of each of these, which are now very
scarce.

In 1818, he published a collection of Fables, en-

" Bewick's landscapes, too, are on the same principle
with his animals: they are for the most part portraits, the
result of the keenest and most accurate observation. You
perceive every stone and bunch of grass has had actual
existence : his moors are north-country moors, the progeny
of Cheviot, Rimside, Simonside, or Carter. The tail-piece
of the old man pointing out to his boy an ancient monu-
mental stone, reminds one of the Millfield plain, or Flod-
den Field. Having only delineated that in which he him-
self has taken delight, we may deduce his character from
his pictures : his heartfelt love of his native country, its
scenery, its manners, its airs, its men and women ; his pro-
pensity

~~ by himself to wander

Adown some trotting burn's meander,

And no thinks lang :

his intense observation of nature and human life; his sati-
rical and somewhat coarse humour; his fondness for maxims
and old saws ; his vein of worldly prudence now and then
" cropping out," as the miners call it, into day-light; his
passion for the sea-side, and his delight in " the angler'
solitary trade :" All this, and more, the admirer of Bewick
may deduce from his sketches. "—Blackwootfs Magazine*
p. 2, 3.

34 MEMIOR OP THOMAS BEWICK.

titled, " The Fables of ^Esop and others, with De-
signs by T. Bewick." This work has not, how-
ever, been received by the public with so much fa-
vour.

In 1820, Mr Emerson Charnley, bookseller in
Newcastle, having purchased of Messrs ^Wilson o.
York a large collection of wood-cuts, which had been
engraved by the Bewicks in early life, for various
works printed by Saint, conceived the design of em-
ploying them in the illustration of a volume of Select
Fables (already referred to). Though aware that
Mr Bewick wished it to be fully understood that he
had no wish to " feed the whimsies of bibliomanists,"
as he himself expressed it, and perhaps was a little
jealous of all the imperfections of his youth being set
before the public, yet the Editor conceived that he
was rendering to the curious in wood-engraving a
very acceptable service, by thus rescuing from obli-
vion so many valuable specimens of the early talents
of the revivors of this elegant art. They were thus
enabled to study the gradual advance towards excel-
lence of these ingenious artists, from their veiy ear-
liest beginnings, and to trace the promise of talents
at length so conspicuously developed.

Mr Bewick, however, was also engaged from time
to time, by himself and his pupils, in furnishing em-

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 35

bellishments to various other works, which it is now
impossible to particularize. One may be mentioned,
Dr Thornton's " Medical Botany/' But as he had
himself no knowledge of this department of natural
science, the cuts engraved for this work were mere-
ly servile copies of the drawings sent, executed with
great exactness indeed, but not at all con amore. It
is believed that the work itself obtained very little
of the public attention.

Several of the later years of Mr Bewick's life were,
in part at least, devoted to a work on British Fishes.
A number of very accurate drawings were made by
himself, and more by his son Robert, whose accu-
racy in delineation is perhaps equal to his father's.
From twenty to thirty of these had been actually en-
graved, and a very large proportion (amounting to
more than a hundred) of vignettes, consisting of ri-
ver and coast scenery, the humours of fishermen and
fishwomen, the exploits of birds of prey in fish-
taking, &c. It was hoped that his son would have
gone on with and completed the work, but in this
the public have been disappointed ; and now that
Mr Yarrell's beautiful work is completed, it possi
bly might not answer.

Mr Bewick had a continued succession of pupils,
many of whom have done the highest honour to their

rfO MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

preceptor ; and some are carrying the art to a stage
of advancement, at which he himself had the candour
to acknowledge, on the inspection of Northcote's
Fables, he had never conceived that it would arrive.
It is almost needless to mention the names of Nes-
bit and Harvey. Others were cut off by death, or
still more lamentable circumstances, who would
otherwise have done great credit to their master ; as
Johnson, whose premature death occurred in Scot-
land, while copying some of the pictures of Lord
Breadalbane, Clennel, Hanson — Hole, whose exqui-
site vignette in the title-page of Mr Shepherd's
Poggio gave the highest promise, was stopped in a
more agreeable way, by succeeding to a handsome
fortune.

The last, project of Mr Bewick was, to improve
at once the taste and morals of the lower classes,
particularly in the country, by a series of blocks on
a large scale, to supersede the wretched, sometimes
immoral, daubs with which the walls of cottages are
too frequently clothed. A cut of an Old Horse, in-
tended to head an Address on Cruelty to that noble
animal, was his last production : the proof of it was
brought to him from the press only three days before
ne died.

It may be observed, that, in the works of the early

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 37

masters, in -he art of wood engraving, there was little
more attempted than a bold outline. It remained
for the burine of Bewick to produce a more complete
and finished effect, by displaying a variety of tints,
and producing a perspective, in a way that astonished
even the copperplate engravers, by slightly lowering
the surface of the block where the distance or lighter
parts were to be shewn. This was first suggested
by his early acquaintance Bulmer, who, during the
period of their joint apprenticeship, invariably took
off, at his master's office, proof-impressions of Be-
wick's blocks. He particularly printed for his friend
the engraving of the Huntsman and Old Hound,
which, as has been ^already observed, obtained for
the young artist the premium from the Society of
Arts.

Mr Bewick was in person robust, well formed
and healthy. He was fond of early rising, walking,
and indulging in all the rustic and athletic sports so
prevalent in the north of England. Many portraits
of him have been engraved and published; but the
only full-length portrait of him was executed by
Nicholson, and engraved by his pupil Ranson.* It

• Mr Audubon reminds me that there is another, and
striking, full-length, by Mr Good, whose peculiar mode
of throwing the light upon his portraits has been much

S8 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

was afterwards proposed by a select number of his
friends and admirers, to have a bust of him executed
in marble, as a lasting memorial of the high regard
they entertained for his genius and excellent charac-
ter. The bust was executed by Baily with great fi-
delity and taste ; and was presented, by the subscrib-
ers, to the Council and Members of the Literary and
Philosophical Sociecy of Newcastle, and now occu-
pies a situation in the most prominent part of the
spacious library-room of that useful Institution.

Many anecdotes are current among his friends con-
cerning the occasions of many of his vignettes. Among
others, one is told of a person, who had for many years
supplied him with coals, being convicted of defraud-
ing him in measure, on which occasion he sent him a
letter of rebuke for his ingratitude and dishonesty.
At the bottom of the letter, he sketched with his pen
the figure of a man in a coal cart, accompanied by a
representation of the devil close by his side, who is
flopping the vehicle immediately under a gallows,
beneath which was written, " The end and punish-
ment of all dishonest men." This well-timed satire
so affected the nervous system of the poor delinquent,

and deservedly admired : it is in the possession of the fa
tnily.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 39

that he immediately confessed his guilt, and on his
knees implored his pardon. This small sketch was
afterwards adopted as a tail-piece, which may be
seen in the first volume of the British Birds, p. 1 1 0.*
(First Edition.)

Mr Bewick was a man of warm attachments, par-
ticularly to the younger branches of his family. It
is known that, during his apprenticeship, he seldom
failed to visit his parents once a week at Cherry-Burn,
distant about fourteen miles from Newcastle ; and
when the Tyne was so swelled with rain and land
floods, that he could not get across, it was his prac-
tice to shout over to them, and, having made inqui-
ries after the state of their health, to return home.

In 1825, in a letter to an old crony in London,
after describing with a kind of enthusiastic pleasure
the domestic comforts which he daily enjoyed, he
says, " I might fill you a sheet in dwelling on the
merits of my young folks, without being a bit afraid
of any remarks that might be made upon me, such

* In page 82 of the same volume is the representation of
a cart-horse running away with some affrighted boys, who
had got into the cart while the careless driver was drinking
in a hedge-alehouse. It is observable, that the rapidity of
the cart is finely expressed by the almost total disappear-
ance of the spokes of the wheel ; a circumstance, it is be-
lieved, never before noticed by an artist.

40 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

as * look at the old fool, he thinks there's nobody
has 'sic bairns as he has.9 In short, my son and three
daughters do all in their power to make their parents
happy."

Mr Bewick was naturally of the most persevering
and industrious habits. The number of blocks he
has engraved is almost incredible. At his bench he
worked and whistled with the most perfect good hu-
mour, from morn to night, and ever and anon thought
the day too short for the extension of his labours.
He did not mix much with the world, for he pos-
sessed a singular and most independent mind. In
the evening, indeed, when the work of the day was
finished, he generally retired to a neighbouring
public-house, to smoke his pipe, and drink his glass
of porter with an old friend or two, who knew his
haunt, and enjoyed the naivete and originality of his
remarks. But he luxuriated in the bosom of his fa-
mily ; and no pleasures he could enjoy in the latter
stage of his life, were equal in his esteem to the ster-
ling comforts of his own fireside. He died, as he
had lived, an upright and truly honest man ; and
breathed his last after a short illness, in the midst of
his affectionate and disconsolate offspring, at his re»
fddence in West Street, Gateshead, on Saturday
November 8. 1828 m tLu 76th y«^r of his age. His

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 41

remains were accompanied by a numerous train of
friends, to the family burial-place at Ovingham, and
deposited along with his parents, his wife (who had
died February 1. 1826, aged 72), and his brother
previously mentioned.*

Much more might be said of this distinguished
artist. More has been said. In Blackwood's Maga-
zine (for 1825), there is a very elegant critique
upon Mr Bewick's works, f In the first volume of
the Transactions of the Natural History Society of
Newcastle, p. 132, is a Memoir of Mr Bewick, by
George Clayton Atkinson, Esq., whose love of na-
ture led him, while very young, to seek the acquaint-
ance of our native artist, who was always ready to
encourage rising merit. But amidst much judicious
remark, there is a detail of particular conversations,
&c. which, though highly interesting in this particu-
lar neighbourhood, would probably not be so to the
public at large. In the third volume of Audubon'd

* There is an affecting tail-piece (the final one in his
Fables, 1820), in which he describes " The End of All,"
representing his own funeral, with a view of the west end
of Ovingham church, and the two family monuments fixed
in the wail. And it may be interesting also to notice, as
a proof of that family-attachment mentioned in p. 36, that
the tail-piece in p. 162 of his Fables bears the date of his
mother's, and that in p. 176 of his father's death.

f For an extract from which, see Note, p. 31.

42 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

Ornithological Biography, p. 300, an account of his
interviews with Mr Bewick, during his residence in
Newcastle, forms one of those delightful " Episodes"
with which he contrives to enliven his accounts of
birds. We have taken the liberty of quoting it.

" Through the kindness of Mr Selby of Twizel-
House in Northumberland, I had anticipated the
pleasure of forming an acquaintance with the cele-
brated and estimable Bewick, whose works indicate
an era in the history of the art of engraving on wood.
In my progress southward, after leaving Edinburgh
in 1827, I reached Newcastle-upon-Tyne about the
middle of April, when Nature had begun to decorate
anew the rich country around. The lark was in full
song, the blackbird rioted in the exuberance of joy,
the husbandman cheerily plied his healthful labours,
and I, although a stranger in a foreign land, felt de-
lighted with all around me, for I had formed friends
who were courteous and kind, and whose favour I
had reason to hope would continue. Nor have I
been disappointed in my expectations.

" Bewick must have heard of my arrival at New-
castle before I had an opportunity of calling upon
Ym, for he sent me by his son the following note : —
1 T. Bewick's compliments to Mr Audubon, and will

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 43

be glad of the honour of his company this day to tea
at six o'clock/ These few words at once proved to
me the kindness of his nature, and, as my labours
were closed for the day, I accompanied the son to
his father's house.

" As yet I had seen but little of the town, and
had never crossed the Tyne. The first remarkable
object that attracted my notice was a fine church,
which my companion informed me was that of St.
Nicholas. Passing over the river by a stone bridge
of several arches, I saw by the wharfs a considerable
number of vessels, among which I distinguished some
of American construction. The shores on either
side were pleasant, the undulated ground being or-
namented with buildings, windmills, and glass-works.
On the water glided, or were swept along by great
oars, boats of singular form, deeply laden with the
subterranean produce of the hills around.

" At length we reached the dwelling of the en-
graver, and I was at once shewn to his workshop.
There I met the old man, who, coming towards me,
welcomed me with a hearty shake of the hand, and
for a moment took off a cotton night-cap, somewhat
soiled by the smoke of the place. He was a tall
stout man, with a large head, and with eyes placed
farther apart than those of any man that I have ever

44 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK

seen : — a perfect old Englishman, full of life, although
seventy-four years of age, active and prompt in his
labours. Presently he proposed shewing me the
work he was at, and went on with his tools. It was
a small vignette, cut on a block of boxwood not more
than three by two inches in surface, and represented
a dog frightened at night by what he fancied to be
living objects, but which were actually roots and
branches of trees, rocks, and other objects bearing
the semblance of men. This curious piece of art,
like all his works, was exquisite, and more than once
did I feel strongly tempted to ask a rejected bit, but
was prevented by his inviting me up stairs, where,
he said, I should soon meet all the best artists of
Newcastle.

" There I was introduced to the Misses Bewick,
amiable and affable ladies, who manifested all anxiety
to render my visit agreeable. Among the visitors I
saw a Mr Good, and was highly pleased with one of
the productions of his pencil, a full-length miniature
in oil of Bewick, well drawn, and highly finished.

" The old gentleman and I stuck to each other,
he talking of my drawings, I of his wood-cuts. Now
and then he would take off his cap, and draw up
his grey worsted stockings to his nether clothes ; but
whenever our conversation became animated, the re-

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 45

placed cap was left sticking as if by magic to the
hind part of his head, the neglected hose resumed
their downward tendency, his fine eyes sparkled, and
he delivered his sentiments with a freedom and vi-
vacity which afforded me great pleasure. He said
he had heard that my drawings had been exhibited
in Liverpool, and felt great anxiety to see some of
them, which he proposed to gratify by visiting me
early next morning along with his daughters and a
few friends. Recollecting at that moment how de-
sirous my sons, then in Kentucky, were to have
a copy of his works on Quadrupeds, I asked him
where I could procure one, when he immediately
answered ' here/ and forthwith presented me with a
beautiful set.

" The tea- drinking having in due time come to an
end, young Bewick, to amuse me, brought a bagpipe
of a new construction, called the Durham Pipe, and
played some simple Scotch, English, and Irish airs,
all sweet and pleasing to my taste. I could scarcely
understand how, with his large fingers, he managed
to cover each hole separately. The instrument
sounded somewhat like a hautboy, and had none of
the shril) warlike notes or booming sound of the
Highland bagpipe. The company dispersed at an

46 MEMOIR OP THOMAS BEWICK.

early hour, and when I parted from Bewick that
night, I parted from a friend.

" A few days after this I received another note
from him, which I read hastily, having with me at
the moment many persons examining my drawings.
This note having, as I understood it, intimated his
desire that I should go and dine with him that day,
I accordingly went ; but judge of my surprise when,
on arriving at his house at 5 o'clock, with an appe-
tite becoming the occasion, I discovered that I had
been invited to tea and not to dinner. However, the
mistake was speedily cleared up to the satisfaction
of all parties, and an abundant supply of eatables
was placed on the table. The Reverend William
Turner joined us, and the evening passed delight-
fully. At first our conversation was desultory and
multifarious, but when the table was removed, Be-
wick took his seat at the fire, and we talked of our
more immediate concerns. In due time we took
leave, and returned to our homes, pleased with each
other and with our host.

" Having been invited the previous evening to
breakfast with Bewick at 8, I revisited him at that
hour, on the 16th April, and found the whole family
so kind and attentive that I felt quite at home. flae

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 47

good gentleman, after breakfast, soon betook himself
to his labours, and began to shew me, as he laugh-
ingly said, how easy it was to cut wood ; but I soon
saw that cutting wood in his style and manner was
no joke, although to him it seemed indeed easy.
His delicate and beautiful tools were all made by
himself, and I may with truth say that his shop was
the only artist's < shop' that I ever found perfectly
clean and tidy. In the course of the day Bewick
called upon me again, and put down his name on
my list of subscribers in behalf of the Literary and
Philosophical Society of Newcastle. In this, how-
ever, his enthusiasm had misled him, for the learned
body for which he took upon himself to act, did not
think proper to ratify the compact.

" Another invitation having come to me from
Gatehead, I found my good friend seated in his usual
place. His countenance seemed to me to beam with
pleasure as he shook my hand. ' I could not bear
the idea,' said he, ' of your going off, without telling
you, in written words, what I think of your Birds of
America. Here it is in black and white, and make
of it what use you may, if it be of use at all.' I
put the unsealed letter in my pocket, and we chatted
on subjects connected with natural history. Now
and then he would start and exclaim, * Oh, that. I

48 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

were young1 again! I would go to America toe.
Hey ! what a country it will be, Mr Audubon.' I
retorted by exclaiming, < Hey ! what a country it is
already, Mr Bewick !" In the midst of our conver-
sation on birds and other animals, he drank my health
and the peace of all the world in hot brandy toddy,
and I returned the compliment, wishing, no doubt,
in accordance with his own sentiments, the health of
all our enemies. His daughters enjoyed the scene,
and remarked, that, for years, their father had not
been in such a flow of spirits.

" I regret that I have not by me at present the
letter which this generous and worthy man gave me
that evening, otherwise, for his sake, I should have
presented you with it. It is in careful keeping, how-
ever, as a memorial of a man whose memory is dear
to me ; and be assured I regard it with quite as much
pleasure as a manuscript * Synopsis of the Birds of
America,' by Alexander Wilson, which this cele-
brated individual gave to me at Louisville in Ken-
tucky, more than twenty years ago. Bewick's let-
ter, however, will be presented to you along with
many others, in connection with some strange facts,
which I hope may be useful to the world. We pro-
tracted our conversation much beyond our usual time
of retiring to rest, and at his earnest request, and

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 49

much to my satisfaction, I promised to spend the
next evening with him, as it was to be my last at
Newcastle for some time.

" On the 19th of the same month I paid him my
last visit, at his house. When we parted, he repeat-
ed three times, 'God preserve you, God bless you!'
He must have been sensible of the emotion which I
felt, and which he must have read in my looks, al-
though I refrained from speaking on the occasion.

" A few weeks previous to the death of this fer-
vent admirer of nature, he and his daughters paid
me a visit to London. He looked as wellvas when
I had seen him at Newcastle. Our interview was
short but agreeable, and when he bade adieu, I was
certainly far from thinking that it might be the last.
But so it was, for only a very short time had elapsed
when I saw his death announced in the newspapers.

" My opinion of this remarkable man is, that he
was purely a son of nature, to whom alone he owed
nearly all that characterized him as an artist and a
man. Warm in his affections, of deep feeling, and
possessed of a vigorous imagination, with correct and
penetrating observation, he needed little extraneous
aid to make him what he became, the first engraver
on wood that England has produced. Look at his
tail-pieces, Reader, and say if you ever saw so much

50 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

life represented before, from the glutton who pre-
cedes the Great Black-backed Gull, to the youngsters
flying their kite, the disappointed sportsman who,
by shooting a magpie, has lost a woodcock, the horse
endeavouring to reach the water, the bull roaring
near the style, or the poor beggar attacked by the
rich man's mastiff. As you turn each successive
leaf, from beginning to end of his admirable books,
scenes calculated to excite your admiration every-
where present themselves. Assuredly you will agree
with me in thinking that in his peculiar path none
has equalled him. There may be men now, or some
may in after years appear, whose works may in some
respects rival or even excel his, but not the less must
Thomas Bewick of Newcastle-on-Tyne be considered
in the art of engraving on wood what Linnaeus will
ever be in natural history, though not the founder,
yet the enlightened improver and illustrious pro-
moter."

It was indeed hoped that more might have been
learned of Bewick from his own pen ; for it is known
that he had, to fill up the vacant evenings of the last
two years of his life, devoted his attention to writing
a memoir of himself, for which he had prepared por-
traits and profiles of several of his friends, together

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 51

with several other engravings. But his children,
finding, probahly, that much related to events and
circumstances that principally concerned themselves,
and family affairs, which, however interesting to
themselves, might not be so to the public, or might
subject them to the imputation of vanity, have, with
a delicacy that cannot but be respected, declined its
publication.

NOTE.

As we conceive all will feel an interest in the cha-
racter and history of this extraordinary man; we
make no apology for introducing here some memo-
randa of his more familiar hours, contributed to
London's Magazine in 1829-30, shortly after his
death, by his personal friend, John F. M. Dovaston,
Esq. A. M.

" The brief and desultory remarks I am about to
incorporate amid the congenial pages of your Maga-
zine of Natural History, arise from a fond and fertile
memory of much conversation, and a long and
frequent correspondence, with my excellent and
beloved friend.

" The first time I had a personal interview with
the venerable Bewick, was at Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
on Wednesday, October 1, 1823, after perambulat-
ing the romantic regions of Cumberland and West-
moreland with my friend, John E. Bowman, Esq.
F.L.S. We had been told that he retired from his

52 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

work -bench on evenings to the " Blue Bell on the
side," for the purpose of reading the news. To this
place we repaired, and readily found ourselves in
the presence of the great man. For my part, so
warm was my enthusiasm, that I could have rushed
into his arms, as into those of a parent or benefactor.
He was sitting by the fire in a large elbow-chair,
smoking. He received us most kindl3T, and in a
very few minutes we felt as old friends. He
appeared a very large athletic man, then in his
seventy-first year, with thick, bushy, black hair,
retaining his sight so completely as to read aloud
rapidly the smallest type of a newspaper. He was
dressed in very plain brown clothes, but of good
quality, with large flaps to his waistcoat, grey
woollen stockings, and large buckles. In his under-
lip he had a prodigious large quid of tobacco, and he
leaned on a very thick oaken cudgel, which, I after-
wards learned, he cut in the woods of Hawthornden.
His broad, bright, and benevolent countenance at
one glance bespoke powerful intellect and unbounded
good-will, with a very visible sparkle of merry wit.
The discourse at first turned on politics (for the
paper was in his hand), on which he at once openly
avowed himself a warm "Whig, but clearly without
the slightest wish to provoke opposition. I at
length succeeded in turning the conversation into
the fields of natural history, but not till after he had
scattered forth a profusion of the most humorous
anecdotes, that would bafHe the most retentive
memory to enumerate, and defy the most witty to

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 53

depict. I succeeded by mentioning an error in one
of his works; for which, when I had convinced
him, lie thanked me, and took the path in conver-
sation we wished. In many instances, I must re-
mark, though frequently succeeding to the broadest
humour, his countenance and conversation assumed
and emitted flashes and features of absolutely the
highest sublimity; indeed, to an excitement of
awful amazement, particularly when speaking on
the works of the Deity.

" Thus happily situated, I paid little attention to
the iron tongue of the neighbouring steeple of St.
Nicholas, whether he told the long and loud ; hour
o' night's black arch the keystane,' or the wee bit
ane ayont it. The fine old fellow, this jolly old
Cock o' the North, as I facetiously called him,
would persist in seeing us to our hotel, where we
renewed our libations even to " sangs and clatter/'
Very early in the morning he kindly came again
with his great cudgel to our chambers ; and removed
us to his neat and hospitable residence amid the
fields and gardens above Gateshead, on the opposite
bank of the Tyne. Here we brokefast with his
family, consisting then of his good old dame (who
died February 1, 1826, aged seventy-two), one son,
and three daughters. He now conducted us amid
the curiosities of Newcastle, public buildings, pic-
tures, and libraries ; and, what is more to my
present sketch, his own workshops. Here we saw
his manner of producing his beautiful art ; and his
nests of almost numberless drawers, each filled with

54 MEMOIR OP THOMAS BEWICK.

one layer of finished blocks, with their faces upward,
on many of whose maiden lineaments, fresh and
sharp from the graver, the ink-hall had never heen
pressed. They are all cut on hox-wood, which is
procured from abroad of as large circumference as
possible, at a great expense, and is paid for by
weight. This is sawn 'across, at right angles to the
cylindrical growth of the tree (I mean as a cucum-
ber is sliced), in pieces, when finished, exactly the
thickness of the height of the metallic types, with
which the blocks are afterwards incorporated in the
pressman's form, or iron frame. One surface of
this block is made extremely smooth, on which is
traced in black and white lines, the figure or de-
sign ; the white is then cut out, and the black left.
Though this was the method he took with his
pupils, of whom he had constantly a numerous
succession, he had early acquired so ready a facility
himself, that simply with the graver on little, and
often no outline, he worked the design on the blank
block at once. His tools, many of his own contri-
vance and making, were various in sizes and sorts.
Some, broad gouges for wide excavation ; some
narrow, for fine white lines ; and some many-
pointed for parallels, which, either straight or wavy,
he cut with rapidity, by catching the first tooth of
the tool in the last stroke, which guided it equi-
distant with the former. He spoke with great ap-
probation of the graphic talents of his late brother
John ; and repeatedly said, that, had he lived, ha
might have attained to greater eminence than ^:^ -

MEMOIR OP THOMAS BEWICK, 55

self. When they both began, the art was almost
lost, and totally neglected ; but has, through his
hands and ingenuity, been almost, as it were, re-
invented, and brought to its present high pitch o
perfection : and many of the most celebrated wood-
engravers have been his pupils. Here he gave us
his opinion of the old method of cross-hatching, a
style not now used, or even known, and he said
useless ; as every effect may be produced by pa-
rallel lines, broader or narrower, at greater or less
distances ; and in the lighter parts, by a little sink-
ing of the surface of the block. The latter is one
of his own inventions, and by it a judicious press-
man can produce every gradation of shade from
very black to nearly white; between which he
preferred those of intermediate strength, being de-
cidedly against a black impression. He thought
the old engravers effected the cross-hatching, either
by covering the block or metal plate with wax,
through which the lines were cut*, and an acid then
applied to eat into the surface ; or by the use of
cross or double blocks, requiring two impressions
to produce a single figure. Numberless specimens
of this cross-hatching may be found in the great old
edition of Fox's Book of Martyrs, where it is often
widely and wantonly thrown away, even where not
required ; a proof, that it must have been executed
without much art or labour : in honest old Gerard's

* This is a mistake ; Bewick must have meant that the
lines representative of the figure were painted or hatched
with any bituminous substance, and the interstices eat down
by acids.

56 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

valuable Herbal: in that of Parkinson : and in
Felix Yalgrise's beautiful folio edition of Matthiolus*
Commentaries on Dioscorides, Venice, 1583 : and
many other ancient books in my collection. Mr.
Bewick's own Horse-traveller in a Storm, where he
shows black and white rain, is a specimen of the
use of two blocks. A person acquainted only with
the common method would be at a loss to conceive
how the union of the absolutely opposite styles of
engraving, on copper and wood, could be effected.
The black diagonal lines, particularly those on the
foreground, constitute its great curiosity as a wood-
cut. In many of his tail-pieces, he has given imi-
tations of etching, and cross-hatching ; but these
are all worked in the usual manner, the surface of
the wood being picked out, with infinite labour and
surprising skill, from between the lines. He very
seldom engraved from any other copy than nature,
having the bird (always alive if possible), or other
subject, before him, and sketching the outline on
the block, filling up the foregrounds, landscapes,
and light foliage of trees, at once with the tool
without being previously pencilled. It was curious
to observe his economy of box-wood ; the pieces
being circular, he divided them according to the
size of his design, so as to lose little or none ; and
should there be a flaw, or decayed spot, he con-
trived to bring that into a part of the drawing
that wras to be left white, and so cut out. He
said, blocks, in durability of lines, incalculably out-
lasted engravings on copper, which wear very much

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 57

in cleaning with chalk for every impression ; but edi-
tions of wood-blocks must be very numerous indeed
before they show any feebleness. In early life he
had cut a vignette for the Newcastle newspaper;
and this year it had been calculated that more than
nine hundred thousand impressions had been worked
off ; yet is the block still in use, and not perceptibly
impaired. A faint impression therefore, is by no
means to be attributed to the wearing out of the
block but to the feebler pull of the pressman ; and
this may be proved by observing that when any one
is remarkably black or light, all that are pulled off
that same form partake of a similar degree of
strength or faintness. I have now in my library a
copy, though, I am sorry to say, spoiled with my
having written the margins all over with ornitho-
logical observations, of the very first edition of the
Birds, in which many of the impressions are far
feebler than the corresponding ones in the very last
edition; and in the same edition the same blocks
vary in all shades. Let not collectors, therefore,
yet despair, who have missed becoming purchasers
in the rapid, and now, since the good man's death,
more rapid sale of his valuable works.

" At his table we had the pleasure of dining with
several gentlemen of distinguished literary character,
whom he had most politely invited on our account.
After dinner, having largely enjoyed the full flow of
his friends' conversation, and launched on its tide
many a full and sunny sail of his own, our good
host for a moment fell asleep in his elbow-chair ;

58 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

during which interval a gentleman narrated the
following little anecdote, which, I find, my venerable
friend's modesty has omitted in his own Memoir.
The Duke of Northumberland, when first he called
to see Mr. Bewick's workshops, was not personally
known to my friend ; yet he showed him his birds,
blocks, and drawings, as he did to all, with the
greatest liberality and cheerfulness ; but, on disco-
vering the high rank of his visitor, exclaimed, 6 I
beg pardon, my Lord, I did not know your Grace,
and was unaware I had the honour of talking to
so great a man/ To which the duke good-humour-
edly replied, c You are a much greater man than
I am, Mr. Bewick/ To which my friend, with his
ready wit that never failed or offended, resumed,
No, my Lord ; but were / Duke of Northumber-
land perhaps I could be/

" A life of Bewick, without a word on his num-
berless and enrapturing VIGNETTES, would be the
story of Aladdin without his lamp. He is the very
Autolycus of tail-pieces, which he flings out faster
and more profusely, in ribands of all ramifications,
than a fire-eater at a fair ; ay, ' he utters them as
if he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to
his tunes/ Do, reader, whatever be thy tempera-
ment, open any one of his books, and thou wilt
touch a key accordant. Look at the boy-soldiers
riding on gravestones, with rush-caps and swords
of seg : the two hindermost blackguard ragamuffins,
tattered and bare-legged ; the next a great awkward
booby, son of some scoundrel attorney; and the

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 59

captain, smallest of all, well clothed, and in good
shoes and stockings, — he is the squire's son, whose
hall is seen behind ; a pretty emblem of incipient
aristocracy. Twenty years hence that little fellow
will blow his twopenny trumpet among the Tories,
and cry c the church in danger ;' the next rascal
will bamboozle him out of his money, and the two
villains behind poach in his covers. If thou lovest
a good ghost story, as I do marvellously, look at the
terrified thief, mistaking the stumps and grey ran-
pikes, in the gloomy moonshine, for devils and
homed goblins, with white wicker ribs and lanky
skeleton arms. Wouldst thou know the cause of
his terror? look into the back -ground: he has just
passed a gallows. I have heard a great painter say
that Hogarth might feel proud of this piece. — Ha !
that is the murine phaeton, drawn by four cocked-
tailed mice : Sir Whisker and Lady Mousellina with
her parasol, of Mouse-CoTTAGE ; their mouse foot-
man, and the mouse arms are emblazoned with
mouse supporters on the panel, in all the boast of
mouse heraldry : they are going to make a call on
Lord Frittertiine and Madam Twaddle. — See how
that heartless and coarse minded tanner grins a
brutal laugh at the poor dog to whose tail the
naughty boys have tied a tinned kettle : you may
hear that it has just had a bouncing bang. — Those
five methodists, listening to the call of their master,
scarce occupy two inches ; yet look at their faces,
male and female — special grace and election ! ! ! —
and were it not for the horns and claws of the

60 MEMOIR OF THOMAS

preacher, by his clerical attitude you might take
him for a very parson. — Cast your eye on the
gipsies and their bear; are not thief and harlot
marked in their physiognomies ? That first fellow's
coat is too big for him, a world too wide ; he has
stolen it. — Look with luxury on the light and
buoyant cutter, dancing on the dashing waves, in
pursuit of the heavy smuggler, straining and creaking
in the breeze, laboriously making off in the misty
moonlight. — The lame man has left his crutch be-
hind, having mounted the back of the blind, who
has let go his dog : hasty attachments imagine
friendship eternal. — That poor spaniel bitch has
been howling all night, and has just broken her
string, and found her drowned puppies : look at her
sudden pause and sorrow ! — Ay, friend Bewick,
many a lobster handles a pencil, and piddles on a
set palette. — Do stop your ears at opening to the two
fiddlers, with their jangling discordant scrapings. —
I truly pity their hearts who hear not the howling
of that scalded dog who has overturned the pot ;
and the cackling of that hen who has just been
laying. — Oh ! what a feast of diverting and instruc-
tive amusement for an idle summer's day, or a long
winter's night ! What a rich and exhaustless suc-
cession of grotesque figures, funny groups, comical
scenes, pithy inscriptions, delicious landscapes, vil-
lage farmsteads, rocky caverns, tufts of. fern, river
glens and cascades, quiet pools and sedgy knolls,
lovely trees and woody dells, towns and towers,
ivied ruins, sea-side views, with sermons in every

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. Gl

stone ; dreary snows, stormy waves, rolling ships,
and screaming sea-fowl; quiet fountains, forest
glades, and woodland solitudes ; fairy haunts,

4 Right seldom seen,

Lovely, lonesome, cool, and green.'

" The commonest capacity might read a history
in every one of these rich and romantic fa/0-pieces,
and a mind of wit and fancy may open to each,
and feel arise from it the simultaneous power of
delivering a hright or blooming narrative of melan-
choly or mirth. Thus the copious, capacious, and
bountiful mind of Bewick, not merely content to
fling around each bird and figure the most beautiful
and appropriate scenery, but revelling in exuberance
of imagination, drops, on almost every leaf, some
gem of genius, ' to point a moral or adorn a tale/
These fling on our sunny memories gleams and
glances of nature, that impulsively shed on the
feelings a delicate mental and bosom emotion, indi-
cating the presence and influence (and probably
constituting much) of that fine but indefinable
power called genius ; whence emanating on conge-
nial dispositions, like rich tones on accordant vibra-
tions, awaken, in successive combination, all the
melodious harmonies of the heart.

" In his Memoir he has detailed his sentiments
on the purity of representation and free government^
in a manner worthy the pen of a Bacon or Lockof?
a history of the art of wood-engraving ; and obser-
vations on the progress of his own mind. Though

62 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

some of his less important opinions may, to persons
who knew him not, appear but as whimsical fancies,
they are the levities of a great and benevolent soul,
that, like the brilliant air-bubbles of a deep clear
fountain, rise playfully to the surface, without sully-
ing its purity. The style is plain and simple, but
sinewy and nervous, marking his character as much
as his manners and even his dress, and is strongly
tinctured, as was his conversation, with broad
Northumbrian and Scottish provincialisms, which,
particularly when he read it aloud, strengthened the
efficiency. The narrative is replete with anecdote,
especially in the earlier parts, wittily recorded and
morally applied, and very much reminded me of
that of the excellent Benjamin Franklin ; indeed,
to that good and great man, both in his religious
and political sentiments, he appeared to bear a
nearer resemblance than to any other. He was in-
defatigable and intrepid in his search after truth,
dauntless and strenuous in the declaration of his
matured sentiments, however opposite to received
opinions, and fearless of any pains or penalties which
the avowal of them might bring upon him from per-
secuting bigots. But the objects nearest to his
heart were, to render the works of the Creator
familiar to youth, by dressing them in their most
alluring form, and thereby leading to the knowledge
and admiration of their great Author, and to the
principles of what he believed to be true religion,
and what all believe to be those of sound morality.
These were his constant aim and study, and to these

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 63

he considered every thing else as subordinate. The
success of his labours in this field he acknowledged,
but was unconscious of it till made aware by the
voluntary and unsought admiration of the world.
When the admired preface to his Fables first ap-
peared, letters from eminent men poured in upon
him, particularly from the University of Cambridge,
and one from the Bishop of Gloucester ; numerous
letters of thanks for the benefits he conferred on
the rising generation, from men of talent and
literary eminence, who were total strangers to him,
except through his works, but who admired his
modesty, his genius, his benevolence, his wit, his
ingenuity, and his genuine religious principles.

" Frequently, as I walked with him along the
streets, it was gratifying to witness how much and
how generally his character and talents were re-
spected; particularly when many who bowed to
him differed totally from him in opinions, on a
subject that ought to conciliate, but far too often
sets little minds at inveterate hostility with grea*
ones. An amiable touch of character showed itsen
in the many ragged children who followed him for
halfipence, and would not leave him till he haa
imparted the customary largess. He turned to them
several times, while he was talking to me, saying,
' Get awa', bairns, get awa ; I hae none for ye
the day* As they still kept dogging him, and
pulling at his coat, he turned into a shop, and
throwing down a tester, said, in his broad dialect
(which he neither affected to conceal, nor pretended

64 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

to affect), * Gie me sax penn'orth o* bawbees ;' and
throwing the copper among the children, said
kindly, and with a merry flourish of his cudgel,
' There, chields, fit yoursels wi' ballats, and gae
hame singing to your mammies/ He was particu-
larly fond of playing with little children, who, not-
withstanding his bulky appearance, and extremely
rough face, suffered themselves to come unto him ;
and among the numerous and ill-sorted contents of
his capacious pockets, he generally (like the all-
hearted Dandy Dinmont) had an apple, a whistle,
or a bit of gingerbread, together with pencil ends,
torn proofs, scraps of sketches, highly tinted with
the yellow ooze of huge pigtail quids, in divers
stages of mastication.

" Yet gentle, generous, and playful as he was,
his personal strength and courage was prodigious :
and notwithstanding his ardent feelings of humanity
towards all animals, particularly dogs, horses, and
birds, in defending many whereof he had drawn
himself into scrapes ; yet, when his own safety wras
at stake, he could repel an attack with a vigorous
neart and arm : for he told me, as how going into a
tanyard, a great surly mastiff sprung upon him, and
how he caught said mastiff by the hind legs, and
* fetched him, wi' his cudgel, such a thwacker owre
the lumber vertebrae, that sent him howling into a
hovel.'

" We enjoyed our evenings as may well be
conceived, with such a host at our head ; often till
broad morning began to spread her bright drapery

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 65

along the east; and even the admonishing sun-
beams to keek through the shutters, laughing out
the candles. Be up as early as I could, I always,
were the morning fine, found him walking briskly
in his garden for exercise. His ornithic ear was
quick and discriminative; he one morning told
me he had then first caught the robin's autumnal
melody, and said we should have a premature fall
of the leaf; we had so, after the excessively hot
summer of 1825. I had heard this robin as I lay
in bed, feeble and infrequent ; and as we walked
in the garden, a passerine warbler, Sylvia hortensis
(whom, from his profusion of hurried and gurgled
notes in May, I call the TLuckler), just gave a touch
of his late song, which the fine ear of Bewick
instantly caught, though in loud and laughing con-
versation. At meals he ate very heartily, and, after
a plentiful supply, often said he could have eaten
more. In early, and indeed late in, life he had
been a hardish drinker ; but was at this time ad-
vised by his medical friends to be more abstemious,
which he abode by as resolutely as he could, though
not without now and then what he called a marlock.
It has been said that Linnseus did more in a given
time than ever did any one man. If the surprising
number of blocks of every description, for his own
and others' works, cut by Bewick, be considered,
though perhaps he may not rival our beloved natu-
ralist, he may be counted among the indefatigably
industrious. And amid all this he found ample
time for reading and conviviality. I have seen him

g(3 MEM OIK OF THOMAS BEWICK.

picking, chipping, and finishing a hlock, talking,
whistling, and sometimes singing, while his friends
have been drinking wine at his profusely hospitable
.table. At nights, after a hard day's work, he gene-
rally relieved his powerful mind in the bosom of his
very amiable family ; either by hearing Scotch songs
(of which he was passionately fond) sung to the
piano-forte ; or his son Robert dirl hornpipes, jigs,
strathspeys, and reels, which failed not to put life
and mettle in the heels of the females and younger
friends, to his glorious delight. Occasionally his
fondling Jane would read Shakspeare to him, or
the delightsome romances of Shakspeare's congener
(not to speak profanely), Sir Walter Scott. It has
been supposed by many, and publicly asserted by a
few, that Bewick never wrote his own works, but
was wholly and solely employed on the designs ; to
this I have his positive contradiction, which would
be enough ; but that in addition to his own MEMOIR,
which I have read in his own MS., I have seen him
compose, extract, and translate passages for each
bird he has engraved while I was in his house. If
his works have any great defect, 'tis the defect of
omission ; every one laments he has given so little
of the history of each bird. I have often offered
him to re-write the whole of the birds wherewith
from early and lasting habits I was well acquainted,
their characters and manners, interspersed with
anecdotes and poetry, particularly from good old
Chaucer, the bard of birds, and passages of every
bearing brought together, flinging over the whole

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 67

what may be called the poetic bloom of nature, in
which none have so sweetly succeeded as honest
White of Selborne. But this he always resolutely
refused; alleging that his descriptions, whether
original, copied, or compared, were unimpeachably
accurate ; and that was enough. And not only aid
he write his own language, but I often thought his
talent in that department not surpassed even by the
other effusions of his genius ; witness his unpa-
ralleled Preface to his Fables, and his other Intro-
ductions. He said, even to the last, he felt no
deficiency of his imaginative powers, in throwing-off
subjects for his fa/0-pieces (as I named them),
which were always his favourite exercise ; the bird
or figure he did as a task, but was relieved by
working the scenery and back-ground ; and after
each figure he flew to the tail-piece with avidity,
for in the inventive faculty his imagination revelled.
" Before I conclude this familiar account of my
friend Bewick, you must, in justice, allow me to
inform the public, that it was commenced, and
(after its first portion) very considerably lengthened,
at your request. Yet still, under the continual
fear of dilation, I reluctantly omit innumerable in-
cidents that are sparkling about the twilight of my
memory, and hurry on to my last interview with
my esteemed friend. Early in June 1827, he wrote
to me from Buxton, that, for the gout in his sto-
mach, he was hurried there by his medical friends,
accompanied by his daughters Jane and Isabella.
At sunrise I mounted the high-pacing Rosalind,

68 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

and entered that naked but neat little town early
the second morning; alighting at the Eagle — fit
sign to a visitor of the king of bird-engravers.

" In my haste to find his lodging, I passed it ;
but stumping behind, with his great cudgel, he
seized me ardently by the arm before I was aware,
exclaiming, * I seed ye from tha window, and
kenned yer back and gait, my kind friend/ I found
him in very good lodgings facing the fountain-
corner of the superb Crescent, nearly opposite the
Old Hall; and, after the fervid raptures of again
meeting, we settled down into our usual chit-chat.
There were three windows in the 'front room, the
ledges and shutters whereof he had pencilled all
over with funny characters, as he saw them pass to
and fro, visiting the well. These people were the
source of great amusement : the probable histories
of whom, and how they came by their ailings, he
would humorously narrate, and sketch their figures
and features in one instant of time. I have seen
him draw a striking likeness on his thumb-nail, in
one moment ; wipe it off with his tongue, and in-
stantly draw another. He told me that, at water-
ing-places, if his name were known, he was pestered
with people staring at him, and inflicting foolish
questions ; and he cautioned me always in public to
to call him the c old gentleman/ We dined occa-
sionally at the public table ; and one day, over the
wine, a dispute arose between two gentlemen about
a bird ; but was soon terminated by one affirming he
had compared it with the figure and description of

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 69

Bewick, to which the other replied that Bewick
was next to Nature. Here the old gentleman seized
me hy the thigh with his very hand-vice of a grasp ;
and I contrived to keep up the shuttlecock of conver-
sation playfully to his highest satisfaction, though
they who praised him so ardently, little imagined
whose ears imbibed all their honest incense. On
evenings we often smoked in the open windows of his
pleasant lodgings, and chatted in all the luxury of
intellectual leisure. A cocky wren ran, like a
mouse, along the ledge of the window. ' Now/
says he, ' when that little fellow sings, he sings
heartily!' Upon which the merry little creature,
as if conscious of our conviviality, and of who heard
him, perched on a post, and trilled his shrilly treble
with thrilling might and main. Of nights we had
music, the young ladies sang, or we read marvellous
or merry ballads, or again relapsed into our plea-
santries ; fully agreeing with the piquant and pithy
Yenusian poet, that fun is no foe to philosophy, to
mix short sallies with our serious discourse, and
nothing so sweet as to play the fool when fitting.

' Misce stultitiain consiliis brevem
Dulce est desipere in loco.'

" Of Lord Byron's poetry he spoke with great
disgust, saying, it teemed with less imagination, and
more trash, in any quantity, than that of any other
great poet; that power was the prominent feature
of his mind, which he prostituted; and the great
failing of his heart was depravity, which he adorned.

70 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

He thought the romances of Sir W. Scott breathed
very large and frequent aspirations of the genuine
essence of poetry ; that his landscapes and figures
were spirited and highly coloured painting, and his
real characters the finest specimens of historical
portraits. Paradise, he said, was of every man's
own making ; all evil caused hy the abuse of free-
will; happiness equally distributed, and in every
one's reach. ' Oh !' said he, c this is a bonny world
as God made it; but man makes a packhorse of
Providence/ He held that innumerable things
might be converted to our use that we ignorantly
neglect ; and quoted, with great ardour, the whole
of Friar Laurence's speech in Romeo and Juliet, to
that effect. In corroboration of this, one day, at
the mouth of Poole's Hole, which, on account of
the chilly damp and dripping of the cavern, he
declined to enter with me and the young ladies;
while we were exploring the strange and fantastic
formations of calcareous tufa therein, the Flitch of
Bacon, the Saddle, and Mary Stuart's Pillar,
(which, it is said, she went quite round when a
prisoner at Chatsworth), I found, on our emerging,
he had collected his handkerchief full of nettle-tops,
which, when boiled, he ate in his soup, methought
with very keen relish. It was on our walk back,
for some joke I cracked, they promised me a collec-
tion of all his engravings on India paper, which, at
the time, I thought a joke too ; yet, valuable and
expensive as was the promise, I, in due time, found
it faithfully and affectionately performed.

MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 71

" I had never parted from him without our reci-
procally thinking it would be the last ; but this time
we both thought otherwise, for his health was
very much ameliorated. Black Monday at length
came; and though the sun shone broad on every
thing around, they walked slowly, and methought
strangely silent, with me (I leading Rosalind, heavy
as a nightmare), about two miles on the road,
where, after saluting the young ladies, and shaking
the good old Bewick's hand, though I hope to enjoy
their friendship yet many years, it was on that
mountain side that with him I parted for ever ; and
looking back, till the road turned the corner of a
rock, dimly saw them kindly gazing after me : and
this was the last time I ever beheld the portly per-
son of my benevolent and beloved friend. We
continued, however, to correspond frequently ; not
only on natural history, but (as the Irish scholar
said) ' de omnibus rebus, et quibusdam aliis,' on the
manners of both feathered and unfeathered bipeds.
The next summer, he visited London about his
works; and thence he wrote me several very hu-
morous letters on the utterly artificial life of the
cockneys ; with the mass of whom, since he was
among them half a century before, he thought the
march of intellect had not equalled the march of
impudence. He was, however, very honourably re-
ceived by many learned societies and individuals, of
whom, and of whose collections, he wrote in rap-
tures. On his return, the London and provincial
papers had many paragraphs respecting this visit,

72 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK.

his reception, and his life ; to amend the errors of
which statements, I must have heen writing one at
the very hour of his death ; for I had not time to
stop its insertion in one of the Shrewsbury papers,
when I received a short, hut most affectionate and
affecting letter from his son, informing me, c as his
father's most valued friend,' that he expired, in full
possession of his fine and powerful mental faculties,
in quiet and cheerful resignation, on the 8th of
November, 1828. On the morning of his death, he
had the satisfaction of seeing the first proof-impres-
sion of a series of large wood-engravings he had
undertaken, in a superior style, for the walls of
farm-houses, inns, and cottages, with a view to
abate cruelty, mitigate pain, and imbue the mind
and heart with tenderness and humanity ; and this
he called his last legacy to suffering and insulted
Nature."

73

HISTORY OF THE PARROTS,

FAM

Xc£

OR

ILY PSITTACIDJE.

IN presenting to our readers a volume containing
the natural history of the Parrots, or family Psitta-
cidcB) we have to direct their attention to an assem-
blage of birds, not less remarkable for the peculiarity
of their form, the gay, varied, and in many instances,
splendid plumage in which they are attired, than for
the intelligence and docility so many evince in a state
of captivity or domestication, and the peculiar faci-
lity possessed by several species of imitating the in-
tonations of the human voice, and learning by rote
words, and even sentences, which they remember
and repeat with clearness and precision ; a faculty,
it may be remarked, confined to these birds, and to
some few of the SturnidcB and Corvidce members of
the Conirostral Tribe, — another primary division of
the Typical Order Insessores.

74 HISTORY OF TKE PARROTS.

According to the natural system, or that founded
upon the affinities which connect the various mem-
bers of the feathered race, and which has been so
ably illustrated and confirmed by the writings of
Vigors, Swainson, and other eminent ornithologists
of our own country, the Psitfacidce, or family of the
Parrots, belong to the order Insessores, and to that
primary division which has been named Scansores,
in. accordance with the climbing and prehensile
powers of its typical members. In this Tribe or
Division, it forms one of the five circular groups or
families into which it primarily resolves itself, the
other four being represented by the Picidce, or Wood-
peckers ; the Ramphastidce, or Toucans ; the Cu-
culidce, or Cuckoos; and the Certhiada, or Creepers.
In its own tribe, it constitutes one of the typical, or,
according to Mr Swainson's views, the sub-typical
group, as it possesses powers of grasping and climb-
ing superior to those of three of the above or Aber-
rant Groups, and inferior in some respects only to
those of the eminently typical Picidce. To any ob-
jection that the station thus assigned to this remark-
able family is at present rather assumed than borne
out by facts, or proved by direct affinity, it may be
observed, that although its connexion with the other
groups of the tribe is not of so close or direct a
nature as might be wished for, in consequence of
some of the links necessary to complete the chain of
affinity being deficient or unknown ; still its general
agreements in form and habits are sufficiently pro-

HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 75

minent to shew that its relationship to the other
scansorial groups is of a degree much nearer than
what it bears to any other tribe ; and farther, that
its apparent isolation, or want of a still closer con-
nexion with the birds among which it is placed, in
all probability arises, merely from the circumstance
that the species necessary to fill up this chasm 01
deficiency of connecting forms, though existing, re-
main yet to be discovered either in it or the conter-
minous families of the tribe. Previous to the en-
lightened and philosophic views of recent naturalists
respecting systematic arrangement, and the discovery
that all natural groups, of whatever value or extent
they may be, arrange themselves in a circular form,
or shew a disposition to return into themselves, the
parrots, under the Linnaean and other artificial sys-
tems, were considered as forming a single isolated
genus, under the title of Psittacus, the various mo-
difications of form they exhibited being only consi-
dered in the light of specific characters, or at most
used for arbitrary sectional division. A comparison,
however, of the parrots with other extensive groups,
and a due consideration of the great diversity of form,
as well as of habits and manners, observed to prevail
among them, plainly shews that they are entitled to
a rank much higher or more comprehensive than
that of Genus, which, according to the now gene-
rally received acceptation of the term, is used to de-
signate one of the lowest assemblages of individuals
or species. In consequence, the Linii&ian genus,

76 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS.

Psittacus, has taken a higher rank in the natural sys-
tem, and has been placed upon an equality with groups
of a similar value, under the denomination of Family,
subordinate to which are other less comprehensive
circles or assemblages of species, the next in extent
being that of Sub- family. Of groups of the latter
denomination, the five following have been indicated
by Mr Swainson, whose views in this primary divi-
sion of the family we are inclined to prefer to that
formerly proposed by Mr Vigors, in the second vo-
lume of the Zoological Journal, as being more in
accordance with the natural affinities, structure, and
economy of the species ; and though a stricter exa-
mination and analysis is still required to ascertain
the precise situation of species whose history is but
little known, we have sufficient to mark the proper-
ties and peculiarities which distinguish these primary
groups.

The first is that of Macrocercina, and is composed
of the splendidly attired Maccaws, all of which are
confined to America, as well as the nearly allied
forms now distinguished by the generic titles of
Arara, Aratinga, and Psittacara. In this division
also we place a group of Birds belonging to the an-
cient Continent, viz. the genus Palceornis, Vigors.
Instead of considering it, as he does, the type of a
subfamily, this division constitutes one of the nor-
mal, or, according to Mr Swainson, the subtypical
group of the family, and is analogous to the denti*
rostral tribe of the Insessores, and consequently, in

HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 77

its own circle, is the representative of the Raptorial
Order.

The second sub- family is that of Psitticina^ re-
presented by the short and even-tailed species usual-
ly called par excellence Parrots ; they are found
distributed throughout all the divisions of the globe
within the tropics. This is the typical group of the
Psittacidae, and is analogous to the conirostral tribe
of the Insessores.

The third is called Plyctolophina, or Cockatoo
Division, containing the birds familiarly known by
that name, as well as the Black, and other nearly
allied species. They are natives of India, its islands,
and Australia. These represent the Scansores, and
consequently the Rasorial Order, in their own fa-
mily.

The fourth is named Loriana, from a group of
parrots generally known by the name of Lories, na-
tives of India and its islands. It also contains the
numerous members of the genus Trichoglossus, Vi-
gors, and several other generic forms belonging to
Australia, all of which are distinguished from the
rest of the Psittacidse by their comparatively slender
bill and papillose tongue. This division beautifully
represents the Tenuirostres, and is the Grallatorial
group of the Psittacidse.

The fifth is that of the Broad-tails, or sub-family
Platycercina> composed of the beautiful genus Pla-
tycercuS) Vigors, and (^ the other ground or slender-
legged parrots of Australia. In it we are also in-

78 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS.

clined to place the black parrots of Madagascar,
known by the name of Vasa. This division is con-
sidered as analogous to the fissirostral tribe of the
Insessores.

By Buffbn, and other naturalists of an early date,
the geographical distribution of the parrots was supj
posed to be confined to the sultry climates within
the Tropics. The discoveries made during the va-
rious scientific voyages which have since explored
the globe, and the keen research that of late years
has been instituted in pursuit of objects of natural
history, have, however, shewn that it is much wider
in extent, particularly in the southern hemisphere,
where species have been found in latitudes as high
as 50°, examples having been discovered and brought
from the Straits of Magellan. In the northern he-
misphere, the limit appears to be more restricted, as
the Carolina parrakeet of North America, and some
few African species, are seldom seen beyond the 32d
or 33d degrees. The Equatorial Regions must, how-
ever, be considered the metropolis of the family, as
it is in them that the greatest variety of genera are
met with, the species which inhabit the higher or
colder latitudes, though numerous, belonging to a
very limited number of generic forms. In the ma-
jority of this family, we find a plumage which, for
richness and variety of colour, yields to few of the
feathered race ; and though, like the tulip among
flowers, it may by some be thought gaudy, and com-
posed of colours too violently and abruptly contrast-

HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 79

ed to give that satisfaction to the eye which a more
chastened, or rather a less abrupt, intermixture of
tints is wont to produce, still we think no one can
examine or look at some of the gorgeously decked
Maccaws, the splendid and effulgent Lories, or the
diversified tints of the Australian Parrakeets, with-
out acknowledging them to be among the most
beautiful and striking of the feathered race.

In the first, second, and fifth subfamilies, the ground
or prevailing colour is green, generally of a lively
tint, and varying from grass to sap and emerald- green,
as expressed in Syme's Nomenclature of Colours.
Upon this groundwork, patches of almost every
known or possible hue are to be found in one or
other of the species. In the subfamily Plyctolophnia
alone we meet with a more uniform and plain attire,
the true cockatoos being white, or white tinged
more or less with rosy red or pale yellow. The other
forms in this group are black or greenish -black, some-
times relieved with large masses of red or yellow
upon the tail. In texture the plumage may be called
firm, close, and adpressed, in some species even as-
suming a scaled or titled appearance. The general
form of the Psittacidse may be stated as short, strong,
and compact, but as deficient in elegance, in the
short and even-tailed species, in which the great
bulk of the head and bill seems disproportioned to
the rest of the body. In the parrakeets, this dispro-
portion is done away with, or at least in a great de-
gree counteracted by the elongation of the tail, and

80 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS.

many of them exhibit an elegance of form and grace-
fulness of carriage surpassed by few other birds,
The formation of the feet, which are zygodactile, or
with the toes placed two forwards and two backwards,
and, in all but the few aberrant species previously ad-
verted to, expressly adapted and formed for firm pre-
hension and climbing, evidently points to woods and
forests as the appropriate and natural habitats of the
race. It is accordingly in those regions where the
trees are clothed in perpetual verdure, and where a
constant and never failing succession of fruits and
seeds (the common food and support of the tribe)
can always be procured, that the parrots are found
in the greatest numbers and profusion. Thus the
recesses of the interminable forests of South America
are enlivened by the presence of the superb Maccaws,
and the nearly allied species of the genus Psittacara ;
those of India and its islands by the elegantly-shaped
members of the genus Palaeornis, and the scarlet-
clothed Lories ; while those of Australia resouna
with the harsh voice of the Cockatoos, and the shriller
screams of the nectivorous Trichoglossi, and broad-
tailed Parrakeets or Platycerci. In these their natu-
ral situations, their movements are marked by an ease
and gracefulness we can never see exhibited in a
state of confinement. They are represented as climb-
ing about the branches in every direction, and as
suspending themselves from them in every possible
attitude ; in all which movements they are great.y
assisted by their hooked and powerful bill, which fc

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 aifords 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
m 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

82 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS

quest, or on one close to the field in which they ex-
pect to regale themselves."

Many of the species are gregarious, and except
during the breeding season, are always seen in large
and numerous bodies; others, as the black cockatoos,
are met with in pairs or families. The places se-
lected for hatching their eggs, and rearing their
young, are the hollows of decayed trees, they make
little or no nest, but deposit their eggs, which, ac-
cording to the species, vary from two to five or six
in number, upon the bare rotten wood. In these
hollows, it is said, they also frequently roost during
the night, and such we learn is the practice of the
bird previously mentioned, for the same author ob-
serves, " Their roosting place is in hollow trees, and
the holes excavated by the larger species of Wood-
peckers, as far as these can be filled by them. At
dusk, a flock of parrakeets may be seen alighting
against the trunk of a sycamore or any other tree,
where a considerable excavation exists within it.
Immediately below the entrance, the birds all cling
to the bark, and crawl into the hole to pass the night.
When such a hole does not prove sufficient to hold
the whole flock, those around the entrance hook
themselves on by their claws and the tip of the up-
per mandible, and look as if hanging by the bill. I
have," he adds, " frequently seen them in such po-
sitions by means of a glass, and am satisfied that the
bill is not the only support used in such cases."

The natural voice or notes of the tribe consist en-

HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. 83

tirely of hoarse or shrill and piercing screams, with
little or no modulation, and frequently reiterated
during flight, as well as when otherwise engaged in
feeding, hathing, or preserving their plumage. The
power of imitating the human voice, and learning to
articulate a variety of words and sentences, is not
possessed by all the species, but is principally con-
fined to the short and even-tailed parrots, in which
the tongue is large, broad, and fleshy at the tip. In
disposition, with the exception of one or two forms,
they are quiet and docile, and easily reconciled to
confinement, even when taken at an adult age.
Their flesh is said to be tender and well flavoured,
particularly that of the younger birds, and is fre-
quently used as food in the districts they inhabit.
The general characters of the family are — bill convex,
large, deflected, thick, and strong. The tipper man-
dible, overhanging the under, hooked at the tip, and
furnished with a small cere at the base, the under
mandible thick, ascending, and forming when closed,
an angle with the upper. Tongue thick, fleshy, and
soft. Nostrils round, placed in the cere at the base
of the bill. Feet scansorial, the external toes longer
than the inner. In regard to their internal anatomy,
we may here observe that the bill is furnished with
additional and powerful muscles, and that the intes-
tinal canal is of great length and destitute of co3ca.

We shall now proceed to describe the examples
selected to illustrate the different groups, making

04 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS.

such farther observations as may be required upon
the subfamilies and genera as they occur.

We shall commence with the subfamily of the
MacrocercincB or Maccaws, which, in its own fa-
mily, is analogous to the dentirostral tribe of the In-
sessores, and represents the subtypical group of the
Psittacidce. By Mr Vigors, in the view he lias taken
of the distribution of the Parrots, this subfamily is
restricted to the Maccaws properly so called, a group
arranging itself under one, or at most, two generic
types, the other American long-tailed Parrots, as well
as those belonging to the ancient world, being all
included in another division to which he gave the
name of Palceornina. To this distribution there are
strong and manifold objections, uniting as it does
in one great group, birds differing essentially in
structure as well as habit, such as the Lories and
other nectivorous Parrots, and those various ge-
nera which compose the Platycercine subfamily,
which depart so far from the true scansorial -spe-
cies in their character and general habits. It is
on this account, and as being more in accordance
with the natural affinities of the race, that we have
adopted the suggestions of Mr Swainson, in regard
to the primary divisions of this family, though we
must add, that much additional information is re-
quired to work out the details, and that there are
many species whose exact station remains doubtful,
and which further analysis and observation can alone

HISTORY OF THE PARROTS. $»

satisfactorily resolve. In addition to the true Mac^aws,
the typical form of this subfamily, it appears natu-
rally to embrace many of the other American long-
tailed species, now divided into separate generic
youps (except by Wagler, who retains the whole
under the single genius Stttace), one of which has
been characterized under the title of Psittacarci,
Vigors, answering nearly to the Peruche- Aras of
the French ornithologists, the members of which are
distinguished by having the orbits and face to a
greater or less extent naked, as exhibited in the spe-
cies selected for illustration. Another is composed
of the species in which those parts are feathered, and
for which the title of Aratinga has been proposed,
though it is probable that a still further generic sub-
division of this latter group will be required. In
this division, also, we would place the long-tailed
Parrots of the ancient world, forming the genus Pa-
laeorntSy Vigors, a group whose history and distri-
bution he has traced with such acumen and classic
lore in the pages of the Zoological Journal. With
this group we shall commence our illustrations, as it
is through one of its members, the Palceornis Darra-
bandi, Vigors, that a connexion appears to be sup-
ported with the Platycercine or broad-tailed division,
which stands at the further extremity of the circle of
the Psittacidce. This bird, with the tail and general
character of Palaornis, exhibiting a near approach
in the proportions of its legs and feet to the genus
PlatycercuS) Vigors, of whose region or metropolis

86 HISTORY OF THE PARROTS.

it is also a native. The passage from the King-Par-
rakeets to the smaller American species, appears to
be effected through those species in which the two
central tail feathers hegin to lose the peculiar eha-
racter of the typical form, and the culmen of the
bill assumes the ridged or triangulate shape that pre-
vails in that American group of which Psitt. cruen-
tatus, Temm., may be taken as an example ; these
are followed by the larger species, as Psitt. Caroli-
nensis and Patachonica, which lead to the Maccaws
by such members as have the cheeks partly feathered.
Following the naked cheeked maccaws, we would
place the true Psittacara, in which the orbits and
part of the face is also naked, and the bill large and
powerful, such as Psitt. acuticauda, nobilis, &c.
The passage to the next subfamily, or Psitticina,
seems to be through Psitt. macrorynchus (Tany-
gnatkus macrorynchus^ Wag.)> and other species, in
which the tail loses its elongate and graduated

GENUS PAL^EORNIS.

THE genus Pfl/^orwzs, as characterized by Mr
Vigors, is distinguished by having the bill thickish,
with the upper mandible dilated, the culmen rounded,
the tomia deeply toothed or emarginate, the inferior
mandible wide, short, and emarginate. Tongue
thick and smooth. Wings of mean length, the three
first quills the longest, and nearly equal; exterior
webs of the second, third, and fourth quills dilated
near the middle, tapering towards the apex. Tail
graduated with the two middle feathers slender,
greatly exceeding the rest in length, with their tips
rounded. Feet, the tarsi rather short, claws strong
and falcate.

" The birds," Mr Vigors observes, " that compose
this genus, are at first sight distinguished by their
superior elegance and gracefulness of form. This
character is considerably increased by the construc-
tion of the tail, the two middle feathers of which far
exceed the rest in length." The different species of
Pa/^or«w known to us, are inhabitants of continen-
tal India, its islands, and Africa, with the exception
of the Palce* Barrabandi, which is a native of Aus-
tralia. They are held in high esteem for their beau-

8c* GENUS PAb^EORNIS.

ty, as well as for their docility and imitative powers,
which seem equal, or hut little inferior, to those of
the short and even-tailed kinds.
Our 6rst figure represents the

PLATE 1.

r.\l..i:oU\!S KA

Bat v.iband Ring- Pm
(Tatrsri

OF THE

( UNIVERSITY

OF

89

BARRABAND RING-PARRAKEET.

Palaornis Barralandi.— VIGORS.
PLATE I.

Palaeornis Barrabandi, Vigors, in ZooL Journ. vol. ii. p. 56,

Sp. 10 Psittacus Barrabandi, Swains. ZooL Illust. vol. i.

p. 59. — Polytelis Barrabandi, Wagler, in Abhand. &c.,
p. 519 — Scarlet-breasted Parrot, Lath. Gen. Syn. vol. ii.
p. 121, P. 24, Ed. 2.

IN this handsome bird, we have one of those in-
teresting forms which so beautifully connect groups,
otherwise distant and far removed ; tor though the
character and shape of the tail, the well-defined ring
or neck-collar, the proportions of the wings, &c., evi-
dently place it in this genus, its elevated tarsi and
feet shew an approach to the Broad-tailed Divi-
sion ( Platytercinse), which stands at the further ex-
tremity of the Psittacean Family. It is also a native
of New Holland, in which interesting country so
many species of Platycercus have been discovered,
the rest of the ring-parrakeets, being the greater part
of them natives of Continental India, and its neigh-
bouring islands, and one or two are also met with

90 BARRABAND RING-PARRAKEET.

in Africa. It was first figured by Mr Swainson, m
his elegant and valuable " Illustrations/' under the
name of Psittacus Barrabandi, from a skin in the
possession of Mr Leadbeater ; but as no observations
or notes appear to have accompanied the remains of
the bird, we are without information as to its pecu-
liar economy. Judging, however, from the propor-
tions of its legs and feet, we are led to suppose that
it is more terrestrial in its habits than its congeners,
or that, in addition to its scansorial or grasping
powers, it possesses superior activity, and moves
with greater facility upon the ground. In size it is
about equal to the Rose-ring Parrakeet, its length
being full 15 inches, of which the tail alone measures
8J inches. The bill is red ; the sinciput, throat,
and fore-neck of a rich yellow, the latter terminated
by a collar of brick red ; the space between the bill
and eyes, and the ear- coverts, are clear grass green ;
the upper and under parts of the body are green,
tinged with blue upon the hind head and outer mar-
gins of the quill-feathers. The upper surface of the
tail is green, the two intermediate feathers about two
inches longer than any of the others, with their ex-
tremities widened and rounded ; under surface of
the wings and tail blackish-brown ; legs black. By
Wagler this bird was removed from the genus Pa-
laeornis, and constitutes his genus Polytelis ; but
as the only character upon which it is established
consists in the slight elongation and slenderness of
the tarsi and toes, we have retained it among the

BARRABAND RING-PARRAKEET. 91

Ring-Parrakeets, where it was first placed by M.
Vigors, and of which group it may be considered a
slightly aberrant form. The next figure represents
the typical species of this genus ; it is the

ALEXANDRINE RING-PARRAKEET.

Palceornis Alexandri. — VIGORS.
PLATE II.

Palaeornis Alexandri, Vigors, ZooL Jour. vol. ii. p. 49. —

Wagler, in Abhand, &c., p. 506 Psittacus torquatus

Ma^roums antiquorum, Aldrov. Avcs. vol. i. p. 678 ;

Icon. p. 679. — Psittacus Alexandri, Linn. Lath. &c

Perruche a Collier des Isles Maldives. Buff. PL Enl.
p. 642. — Le Grand Perruche & collier, Le Vaill. Hist, des
Per. pi. 30 — Alexandrine Parrot, Lath. Syn. vol. i.
p. 234, No. 37 — Ring-Parrakeet, Edwards, pi. 292.—
Alexandrine Parrakeet, Shaw's ZooL vol. viii. p. 423.

IN the figure of this elegant bird, our readers are
introduced to a well known and favourite species of
modern times, and which is generally supposed to
have been the first, and by many the only one known
to the ancierjt Greeks, having been discovered during
the expeditions of the Macedonian conqueror, by
whose followers it was brought to Europe from the
ancient Tabropane, now the Island of Ceylon. At
all events, it is evident from the concurrent testi-
mony of various ancient authors, that whatever par-

PALYEORNIS ALEXANDRA

Alexandrine ring-Parrakeet.
Native- of the Is] and of Ceylon.

ALEXANDRINE RIXG-PARRAKEET. 93

•ots were known, either to the Greeks or Romans,
previous to the time of Nero, were exclusively
brought from India or its islands, and that the spe-
cies, if more than one had been introduced, also be-
longed to the genus now in the course of illustration,
the description they have given of the plumage of
these birds pointing distinctly to this, and possibly
one or two other nearly allied species, as not only
the prevailing colour of the body, but that of the
bill, and the distinguishing characteristic, the neck-
vollar, are particularly mentioned. By Aristotle it
h called lo Iv^ov o^vzov — the Indian Bird ; and Pliny
not only mentions the country from whence it came
but adds, "Sittacen vocat, viridem toto corpore tor-
que tantum miniato in cervice distinctam." Its imi-
tative qualities and powers of articulation, and the
high estimation in which it was held among the great,
are also fiequently adverted to by the poets ; and it
was in commemoration of a favourite bird of this
species, that Ovid composed that beautiful elegy,
commencing —

" Psittacus, Eois imitatrix ales ab oris,
Occidit."

Of this elegy a free translation is given in Shaw's
Zoology, to which, from its length, we must refer
our readers. The Alexandrine, as well as its con-
gener the Rose-ring Parrakeet, are still highly prized,
and frequently brought from the East Indies, as, in

94 ALEXANDRIA KlflG-PARRAKEET.

age, they possess great docility, and a facility of pro-
nunciation inferior to none of the race. Of their
habits in a state of nature we remain comparatively
ignorant.

ORXIS HAL AC C KNS1S.

MALACCA RINaPARRAKEET.

Palceornis Malaccensis — VIGORS.
PLATE IIL

Palaeornis Malaccensis, Vig. Zool. Journ. ii. p. 52; Wag*
ler, Mon. Psit. in Abhand. &c. p. 514 — Psittacus Malac-
censis, Gmel. vol. L p. 325, No. 74 — Psittacus erubescens,
Shawls Zool. vol. viii. p. 437. — Psittacus barbatulatus,
Bechst. Kuhl Nov. Acta. &c., No. 38 — La Peruche £
nuque et joues rouges, Le VailL pi. 72. — Blossom- cheek-
>ed Parrakeet, Shaw.

A DRAWING of this beautiful species having been
made by mistake, instead of a bird belonging to a
different division, but bearing the same specific title,
is the cause of a third illustration of this genus being
given. In its form and aspect it appears eminently
ypical, the two intermediate tail-feathers being very
long, and extending far beyond the others, narrow,
but equal in breadth towards their tips, which are
blunt or slightly rounded. As its name imports, it
was first observed and introduced from Malacca.
Its distribution, however, is not confined to that part
of India alone, as Mr Vigors mentions in his obser-
vations on this group of the Psittacidae, that several

MALACCA RING-PARRAKEET.

specimens were brought to this country from Suma-
tra by the late lamented Sir Stamford Raflftes. In
size it about equals the Palceornis BengaIensis(Rose-
headed Ring-parrakeet, a bird of very similar form
and habit), its extreme length being- generally full four-
teen inches, of which the tail alone measures eight.
The upper mandible is of a fine lively red, the tip paler,
the under mandible black tinged with red. The
crown of the head is sap-green ; the cheeks, nape,
and back part of the neck, are of a beautiful deep
rose-red, tinged with lilac-purple upon the latter
part. The oblique mustachio-like collar is deep
black. The lower part of the neck and mantle are
fine greenish-blue ; the rest of the upper awl under
plumage is yellowish sap-green, palest upon the
thighs and vent. The quills are margined with
blue, their under surface being black. The two
long intermediate tail-feathers are azure-blue, tinged
with purple towards their tips ; the lateral tail-fea-
thers are yellowish-green. The legs and feet are
grey, tinged with flesh-red.

Besides the three species here figured, ten or ele-
ven more are described by Mr Vigors and Wagler ;
the latter, in his Monograph of the family, has be-
stowed much attention in collating the various syno-
nyms of the species. According to his list, they con-
sist of, — 1. Pal. Alexandri; 2. Pal. cuhicularis,
identical with the P. torquatus and bitorquatus of
^ igors, and the young of which is supposed to be
the Pal. inornatus of the same author ; 3. Pal. Bor-

MALACCA RJNG-PARRAKEET. 97

nevs, apparently referable to the P. erythrocephaius,
Vigors ; 4. Pal. melanorynchus, a species apparent-
-jy liitherto confounded with the Pal. Pondicerianus,
<>f autliors, and not distinguished by Vigors ; 5. Pal.
Pondicerianus; 6. Pal. barbatus, by other writers a
supposed variety of P. Pondicer., not distinguished
as a species in Mr Vigors's list; 7. Pal. Malaccensis ;
8. Pal. Bengalensis ; 9. Pal. cyanocephalus, the same
as the P. flavitorquis of Vigors ; 1 0. Pal. columbci-
des, first described by Mr Vigors in the Zoological
Journal ; and Pal. inornatus> the Psittacus incarna-
tus of authors, a bird whose station in this group,
according to Wagler's pwn account, appears very
doubtful. The engraving expresses so correctly the
character and plumage of the bird, as to render it
unnecessary to give a detailed description. We may
mention, however, that the young bird is without the
black and rosy coloured collar which distinguishes
the adult, in which state it is known as the Psitta-
cus eupatria of authors.

From the Ring-Parrakeets of Asia and Africa we
now pass to the Long-tailed groups of South Ame-
rica, the great metropolis of the Macrocercine Divi-
sion ; for here are found not only the typical forms
of the subfamily as exhibited in the large and splen-
did Maccaws, but other species more nearly con-
nected in habit and appearance with the birds be*

98 MALACCA RINQ-PARRAKEET.

longing to the ancient world. Among these may be
particularized an extensive group, mostly consisting
of birds of moderate size, in which the immediate
orbits of the eyes alone are naked ; these form a
part of M. Spix's genus Aratinga, and, as represen-
tatives of it, the Psittacus cruentatus, Temminck,
and Psitt. leucotis, Lich., may be quoted. From
this group we would separate several larger species,
as Psitt. Carolinensis, Auctor, &c., under the name
of Arara, Spix, reserving the title of Psittacara for
another group, in which the bill is much larger, with
the tip drawn to a fine point, and having the orbits
and part of the face naked, characters which bring
it in near connexion with the large bare-cheeked
Maccaws. Of this group, the Psittacus nobilis,
Linn., Psittacara frontata, Vig., is an example.
As the limits of the volume only permit of a certain
number of illustrations, we have selected a species
of the second or Arara genus, which, from its size
and appearance, seems to lead directly to the genus
Macrocercus : it is the

Native f

PATAGONIAN ARARA.

Afar a Patagonica. — LESSON.
PLATE IV.

Psittacus Patagonicus, Azara. — Arara Patagonica, Lesson,
in Dupp. Voy. autour du Monde, Part Zool. tab. 35 —

Sittace Patagonica, Wagler, in Abhand. fyc., p. 659 Pa-

tagonian Parrakeet Maccaw, Lears1 Parrots.

THIS large and fine looking species, whose total
length is seventeen inches, the tail measuring nearly
nine, was first described by Azara, and is a native
of Paraguay, the districts of Buenos Ayres, Pa-
tagonia, and Chili. In the latter country, it is de-
scribed as a most abundant species, and is resident
the whole year, frequenting the hilly and subalpine
regions during the summer, where it breeds in the
holes of trees and rocks, but descending as autumn
approaches to the lower levels, where it congregates
in immense flocks, and frequently does great injury
to the produce of the gardens and cultivated fields
of the inhabitants. It is said to be of a bold and
fearless disposition, admitting of a near approach,
which subjects it to be killed in immense numbers
by those who suffer from its depredations. Like its

100 PATAGONIAN ARARA.

congener the Carolina Arara, it is continually utter-
ing its piercing screams, as well when perched as upon
wing. It is easily tamed, and can be taught to imi-
tate the human voice, but more imperfectly than some
of its congeners, on which account it is held in slight
estimation, and but seldom domesticated by the in-
habitants. In Patagonia, it extends nearly as far as
the straits of Magellan, a southern latitude much
higher than any frequented by this tribe in the
northern hemisphere, where the limit of their distri-
bution rarely extends beyond the 32d degree. The
drawing from which our plate is engraved, was taken
by Mr Lear, from a living specimen in the Zoologi-
cal Gardens, and though inferior in scale, possesses
perhaps as much of life and character as that con-
tained in his large and beautiful work, " Illustrations
of the Psittacidse." The bill is of a blackish colour,
short and thick at the base. The orbits are naked
and white, the space between the bill and eyes fea-
thered, the head and upper part of the neck are
blackish-green, tinged with yellow around the eyes,
the lower neck is greenish -grey, succeeded by a pec-
toral collar or gorget of greenish- white, the lower
part of the breast is deep greenish-grey. The sides
and flanks are yellow, upon the thighs tinged with
green. The middle of the abdomen is vermilion red.
The back and lesser wing coverts are dusky yellow-
ish-green, the greater coverts and secondary quills
are bluish-green, narrowly margined with yellow.
The tail is long and lanceolate, of a dingy yellowish-

CAROLINA ARARA. 101

green, the tips of the feathers passing into bluish-
green. The under surface is greenish- black. The
k?gs and toes are flesh red, tinged with grey.

CAROLINA ARARA.

Arara Carollnensis.

Psittacus Carolinensis, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 141. 13. — Lath. Ind.
Orn. 1. p. 93. sp. 33.^Cto. Buon, Syn. p. 41 — Sittace
Ludoviciana, Wagler, in Abhand. fyc. p. 656 — Carolina
Parrot, Lath. Syn. 1. p. 227.—Wils. Amer. Orn. 3. p. 89.
pi. 26, fig. \.-~Id. ed. Sir W. Jardine, 1. p. 376 — Audu-
botfs Birds of Amer. v. 1. p. 135. pi. 26.

THE great body of the Psittacidce, as already
observed, are natives of the intertropical climates ;
but the species now under consideration is one of
the few that occurs in the temperate regions of the
northern hemisphere. It is a native of the North
American continent, inhabiting the United States
to a latitude as high as 42°. Such, at least, was
the case some fifteen or twenty years ago, when
Alexander Wilson was engaged in tracing out the
history of the birds inhabiting the States ; for we
find, on turning to his delightful pages, that then it
not only prevailed throughout Louisiana and the
shores of the Mississippi and Ohio, but also those
of their tributary waters as high as Lake Michigan,
in lat- 42° N. We learn, however, from a living

102 CAROLINA ARARA.

author,* scarcely less graphic or original in his de-
scriptive powers, that of late years these birds have
rapidly diminished in number, and that they are
now almost banished from districts where formerly
they used to abound. " At that period," (speak-
ing of twenty- five years ago), " they could be
procured as far up the tributary waters of the Ohio
as the great Kenhawa, the Scioto, the heads of the
Miami, the mouth of the Mammee at its junction
with Lake Erie, on the Illinois river, and sometimes
as far north-east as Lake Ontario, and along the
eastern districts as far as the boundary line between
Virginia and Maryland. At the present day, few
are to be found higher than Cincinnati, nor is it un-
til you reach the mouth of the Ohio that parakeets
are met with in considerable numbers. I should
think that along the Mississippi there is not now
half the number that existed fifteen years ago." A
rapidly increasing population, attended by an ex-
tended cultivation, and the consequent destruction
of many of those ancient and decayed trees which
constituted the dormitories and breeding sites of the
species, as well as the war constantly waged against
them by the husbandman, as the depredators of the
orchard and corn-stacks, are probably the chief causes
of their rapid diminution in those parts which they
formerly enlivened with their gay and varied plu-
mage. We learn from both authors, that, when en-
gaged in feeding, they are easily approached, and

* J. J. Audubon.

CAROLINA ARARA. 103

numbers killed by one discharge, as the whole flock
alight and feed close to each other. The work of
destruction, moreover, is not confined to a single
shot; for we are told, that " the survivors rise,
shriek, fly round for a few minutes, and again alight
on the very place of most imminent danger. The
gun is kept at work ; eight, ten, or even twenty are
killed at every discharge, the living birds, as if con-
scious of the death of their companions, sweep over
their bodies, screaming as loud as ever, but still re-
turn to the stack to be shot at, until so few remain
alive, that the farmer does not consider it worth his
while to spend more of his ammunition." Injurious,
however, as they no doubt frequently are to the
cultivator, their principal food is said to be the
Cockle-burr, the seed of the Zanthium strumarium,
a plant that abounds throughout the rich alluvial
lands of the States west of the Alleghany Moun-
tains : it is a weed noxious to the husbandman on
many accounts, and the consumption of its seed by
the Parrots must therefore be of some advantage,
though that is unfortunately for them greatly dimi-
nished, from the circumstance of its possessing a
perennial root.

Like the rest of the group to which it belongs,
the Carolina Arara appears incapable of learning to
articulate words, though, when captured, it soon be-
comes tame, and will eat almost immediately after-
wards. Wilson gives a long and interesting account
of an individual that he had wounded slightly in the

10-4 CAROLINA ARARA.

wing, during one of his excursions, and which he
carried for a great distance in his pocket. It soon
became familiarized to confinement, learnt to know
its name, to come when called on, to sit on his
.shoulder, climb up his clothes, eat from his mouth,
&c. On account of its inability to articulate, and
its loud disagreeable screams, it is seldom kept
caged in America; and, as Audubon observes, "the
woods are best fitted for them, and there the rich-
ness of their plumage, their beautiful mode of flight,
and even their screams, afford welcome intimation
that our darkest forests and most sequestered swamps
are not destitute of charms." According to this
author, their nest, or rather the place where they
deposit their eggs, is the bottom of the cavities of
decayed trees. " Many females," he observes, " de-
posit their eggs together," and the number laid by
each individual, he believes is two — a number which
seems to prevail throughout the great body of the
family. The eggs are round, and of a light green-
ish white ; and the young, when excluded, and be-
fore they acquire their feathers, are covered with a
soft down. The plumage of the first few months is
green, but towards autumn they acquire a frontlet
of carmine. Upon the ground they are slow and
awkward, walking as if incommoded by their tail.
When wounded, and attempted to be laid hold of,
they turn to bite with open bill, and, if successful,
inflict a very severe wound. They are said to de-
light in sand or gravelly banks, where they may fre-

CAROLINA ARARA. 105

quently be seen rolling and fluttering about in the
dust, at times picking up and swallowing a limited
quantity. The lochs and saline springs are also con-
stantly frequented by them, salt appearing equally
agreeable to them as to pigeons, and various other
birds and animals. The bill of the Carolina Arara
is very hard and strong, the tip much thicker and
rounder than in the Psittacara group ; the tooth, or
angular process of the upper mandible, is well and
strongly defined ; the colour white. The irides are
hazel, the orbital skin whitish. The legs and feet
are of a pale flesh red ; the claws dusky. The fore-
head, cheeks, and periphthetonic region, are of a
vivid orange red, the rest of the head and neck gam-
boge yellow ; the shoulder and ridge of the wings
yellow, varied with spots of orange red. The up-
per plumage is of a fine emerald green, with purple
and blue reflections. The greater wing-coverts are
deeply margined with greenish-yellow. The under
plumage is a fine pale siskin or yellowish-green. The
greater quills have their outer webs bluish-green,
passing into bright yellow at the base. The inner
webs are hair brown, slightly tinged with green near
their tips. The tail is green, the inner webs of the
lateral feathers tinged with brownish-reel. The fea-
thers of the tibiae are yellow, passing into orange at
the joint. In length it averages about 14* inches ;
in extent of wings 22 inches.

106 GENUS MACROCERCUS.

The next group we have to notice is that of the
Maccaws, or genus Macrocercus* VielL, here re-
stricted to the larger species, with long lanceolate
tails and naked orbits and cheeks. In this group
the bill is short but very strong, and higher than
long ; the upper mandible greatly arched, with the
tip long, and projecting far beyond the under, which
is massive, and meets the upper at right angles. The
palatine ridge is very distinct, and the inner surface
of the projecting tips roughened and file like. The
tongue is thick and soft. The wings pretty long
and acuminate. The feet strong, and formed for
grasping ; the claws falcate, the tarsi upon which they
partly rest are short and thick. In disposition they
are much less docile than the true Parrots, and can
rarely be taught to articulate more than a few words
in a harsh discordant tone ; their natural notes are
confined to hoarse and piercing screams. They
breed in the hollows of trees, laying two eggs, which
are said to be incubated alternately by both sexes,

The first species figured is the

MACKOCERCUS MILITAKIS.

The Great Green Marc &w.
' lit' Mexico & Peru-.

107

THE GREAT GREEN MACCAW.

Macrocercus militaris.
PLATE V.

Sittace militaris, Wagler in Abhand. <Jc.,p. 668— Psittacus
militaris, Auct. — L'Ara Militaire, et le Grand Ara Mili-
taire, Le Vaillant, 1. c. p. 11, t. 4, et 1. c. p. 15, t. 6 — Great
Green Maccaw, Edw. pi. 13.

IN this beautiful species, the ground or prevailing
colour of the plumage becomes more assimilated to
that of the great body of the long-tailed division,
than some of its congeners, for, with the exception
of the forehead, the region of the eyes, the lower
back, wings, and tail, the remainder is of a fine and
lively green. Edwards, in his valuable work, " The
Gleanings of Natural History," seems to have first
figured and described this Maccaw, which, though
ignorant of at the time, he rightly conjectured to be
an American bird. It is now ascertained to be a
native of Mexico and Peru, inhabiting the warmer
districts of the Andean Chain, and attaining to an
elevation of about 3000 feet. According to Wagler,
its habits differ considerably from those of its con-
geners, ae it does not confine itself to the recesses of

108 THE GREAT GREEN MACCAW.

the forests, or its food to the fruits there produced,
but attacks in congregated flocks the fields of maize,
and other cultivated grain and fruits. Upon these
it frequently commits serious depredations, to such an
extent, indeed, as to require the constant attention and
watching of the inhabitants during the period of ma-
turation. When engaged in their predatory excur-
sions, a guard is constantly left by the flock in some
•elevated station, generally the summit of a tree,
from whence, should danger be apprehended, an
alarm is given by a loud and pecul-ar cry, which is
responded to by the immediate flight of the wary
depredators. They are also said to feed upon the
flowers of the Erytkince, and some species of Thi-
baudice, before the ripening of the grains, but whe-
ther this is merely to obtain the nectarious juice, as
practised by the Asiatic Lories and Australian Tri-
choglossi, or for the thick and fleshy substance of the
flower and embryo pod or seed-vessel, does not ap-
pear from Wagler's account. During the period of
the rains, which commence in October, the great
body of these birds migrate to other districts, and
do not return till the maize begins to ripen, which
takes place in January and February. It is easily
tamed, and of a docile disposition, but can rarely be
taught to articulate more than a few words. It ap-
pears to have been a favourite among the ancient
Peruvians, as we are told it was frequently presented
to the Incas, by their subjects, as an acceptable gift.
In size, it is inferior to several of the Maccaws, its

THE GREAT GREEN MACCAW. 109

extreme length being about twenty- nine inches. The
bill is strong, typical in form, its colour blackish-
Crown. The orbits and cheeks are naked, and of a
flesh colour, with striae of small blackish-brown fea-
thers ; the irides are composed of two rings, the
outer of a rich yellow, the inner greyish-green. The
forehead is of a rich crimson, the chin feathers red-
dish-brown, and passing rapidly into the green of
the neck. The rest of the head, the neck, lesser
wing-coverts, the mantle, and all the under parts of
the body, are of a fine and lively green, in some
lights shewing tints of azure blue on the back of the
neck and head. The lower back and upper tail co-
verts, as well as the greater wing-coverts and quills,
are of a fine blue. The tail feathers on the upper
surface are scarlet, with blue tips, the under surface
and that of the wings orange-yellow. The legs and
toes are red, tinged with grey. The claws are
strong, hooked, and black.

The second illustration of this magnificent group,
is the

110

BLUE AND YELLOW MACCAW.

Macrocercus ararauna. — AUCTORUM.
PLATE VI.

Psittacus maximus cyano-virens, Aldrov. Will.— Am bleu
et jaune, Buff. PI. EnL 36. — L'Ara-rauna, Le Vaillant^
i. t. 3. — Psittacus ararauna, Shawls ZooL v. viii. p. 391.
pi. 54.

THIS beautiful species is rather inferior in size to
the great Scarlet Maccaw, but being less common than
that bird, and possessing all the typical characters
of the group, we have thought that an accurate fi-
gure of the rarer bird would be more acceptable to
our readers, than one of a kind better known, al-
though the plumage of the latter may boast of greater
richness and brilliancy of colour. In length, it mea-
sures about 39 inches, the tail alone being about 24.
The bill is entirely black, very large and strong.
The upper mandible, measuring from the forehead
to the tip, three inches and a quarter : it is greatly
deflected, and bends immediately from the base ; the
under mandible is short and massive, rapidly ascend-
ing, and describing when closed, a right angle with
the upper. The cheeks are white, and nearly naked,
with three fine narrow striae of small black plumes

MACROCERCUS ARARAFNA

Blae anil Yellow Maccaw
ITatavc of Brazil.

BLUE AND YELLOW MACCAW. 11'

beneath the eyes. The irides are yellowish-white.
Immediately beneath the under mandible is a broad
black fascia, extending upwards to the ears, and en-
compassing the greater part of the naked white space.
The whole of the upper plumage is of a beautiful
rich blue, passing into green upon the forehead,
crown, rump, and some of the smaller wing-coverts.
The greater quills and tail are of a deeper tint, ap-
proaching to violet. The under surfaces of the wings
and tail are yellow. The sides of the neck, breast,
and inferior parts of the body, are rich saffron-yel-
low. The legs and feet blackish -grey, the scales
defined by whitish lines. Like all the other mem-
bers of the genus, it is a native of tropical America,
and is met with in the Brazils, particularly upon the
banks of the river Amazons, in Guiana, and Suri-
nam, &c. It affects the woods, particularly such as
occupy swampy grounds, and which abound in a
species of palm, upon whose fruit it principally sub-
sists. It is said generally to keep in pairs, though
occasionally to assemble in large flocks, and when
this is the case, their united screams are heard to a
great distance. The dimensions and form of their
wings, and long cuneiform tail, indicate a powerful
and vigorous flight, and accordingly we are informed
that in this respect they are inferior to none of the
tribe, their flight being often at a high elevation,
and accompanied with a variety of aerial evolutions,
particularly before alighting, which is always upon
the summits of the highest trees. They deposit their

112 BLUE AND YELLOW MACCAW.

eggs, which never exceed two in number, in the
hollow trunks of decayed trees, and generally have
two broods in the year. Both sexes are reported to
sit alternately upon the eggs, and are equally assi-
duous in cherishing and conveying food to the young.
When taken at an early age, they are easily tamed,
but their imitative powers are not equal to those of
the Grey Parrot, and it is seldom that they can he
taught to articulate clearly, or more than a few
words. Their natural notes are very unpleasant to
the ear, consisting of loud and piercing screams, in-
terrupted with hoarse croaking murmurs. Living
specimens of this species are sometimes seen caged
in England. A very fine one is completely domes-
ticated at Dr Neill's, Canonmills (near Edinburgh),
and allowed the freedom of several apartments : when
desirous of being noticed, it calls out " Robert," the
name of its earliest master, very distinctly ; but it
has not acquired more than one other conventional
sound. Beautiful examples may be studied in the
aviaries of the Zoological Gardens. Our next figure
represents another species very nearly related to the
Scarlet Maccaw : it is the

MAC RO C K K'C 1TS AKA CANGA.

KedftiKl Blue Maccaw;
. Native of Guiana,

Xa

AND BLUE MACCA1V.
Macrocercus aracanga.
PLATE VII.

Sittace aracanga, Wagler, in Abhand. Qc. p. 672 Psit-

tacus aracanga, Auct. — L'Ara canga, Ve Vaill. Hist, des
Per. t. 2.— The Red and Blue Maccaw, Edwards, 4.
t. 158.

THIS large and splendid species has frequently
been confounded with its nearly related congener,
the Psittacus macao of authors, from which it may
always be distinguished, by the want of the narrow
rows of red plumes upon the naked part of the face,
and in having the middle wing-coverts of a bright
yellow, instead of green. In dimensions it is fully
equal to the other species, frequently attaining 39
inches in extreme length, of which the tail measures
nearly 24; The bill is large, and very powerful :
the upper mandible yellowish-white, except near the
angles of the mouth, where it is varied by a dark
streak or spot ; the under mandible is black. The
cheeks and orbits are covered with a rough pinkish •
white skin, without any rows of small fenthers ; the
rest of the head, the neck, back, scapulars, breast,

1 14 RED AND BLUE MACCAW.

and abdomen, are vermilion -red. The middle wing-
coverts are bright yellow, tipped with bluish- green.
The spurious wing, the secondaries, and greater
quills, are of a deep azure-blue ; the lower back,
rump, upper and under tail-coverts, are pale azure
and ultramarine blue. The four intermediate or
longest tail-feathers are deep vermilion-red, the next
feather on each side is red and blue, the remainder
are wholly blue. The under surface of all the tail-
feathers is deep red. The irides are primrose-yel-
low ; the legs and feet are blackish-grey, the scales
are divided or marked by mealy white lines. It is
a species apparently widely distributed throughout
the intertropical parts of America, being found in
Guiana, Surinam, and parts of Mexico. Its ha-
bits resemble those of the Blue and Yellow Maccaxv,
being found in similar situations, and feeding upon
the Palmettoes or Borassi which abound in the over-
flowed savannahs of South America. They build
in the holes of decayed trees, enlarging them when
too narrow, and line the interior with feathers. They
hatch, as do most of the tropical species, twice in
the year, laying each time two spotted eggs, which
are incubated alternately by both sexes. 'The great
size, and gorgeous plumage of this bird, places it
among the most imposing of its race ; and in avi-
aries, or living collections of tbe Psittacidce, it forms
a prominent and striking feature. It is, however,
only in such situations as the Zoological Gardens,
that we can admire and contemplate its beauty with

RED AND BLUE MAOC AW. 1 1 5

satisfaction and pleasure, its screams, and hoarse dis-
cordant tones, rendering it any thing but an agree-
able companion when confined within the precincts
of a private house. Our figure is from a living bird
in the gardens 01 the Zoological Society.

Immediately following the Maccaws, and nearly
related to them by the strength and thickness of the
bill, and the naked skin which still occupies the or-
bits, and more or less of the face, is a group to
which we would restrict the title of Psittacara, Vi-
gors, typified by his Psittacara frontata, but not
embracing all the birds which he included in it, se-
veral of them having their station among the Araras,
or that group to which the Patagonian species be-
longs. The genus Psittacara is distinguished by
a large, deep, and massive bill, the upper man-
dible with the culmen imperfectly biangulated, tlie
tip drawn suddenly to a fine sharp point, the to-
mia sinuated, or imperfectly toothed, the under
mandible very large and thick, the tip quadrate,
the orbits, and space between the bill and eyes,
to a greater or less extent naked. Nostrils round,
patent, in the cere at the base of the bill. Wings
rather long, acuminate, the three first feathers of
nearly equal length, wide at the base, narrow-
ing suddenly toward their tips. Tail rather long,
and moderately graduated. The passage from the
Maccaw to the Parrot division, appears in one point
to be effected by the apparent connection that sub-

116 GENUS PSITTACARA.

sists between the birds of this genus and those of
genera Tanygnaihus and Triclaria, of Wagler, the
latter of which, by the nearly even or slightly cu-
neated tail, leads to the true or typical Parrots.
The subject of the next illustration is the

117

NOBLE PARROT-MACCAW.

Psittacara nobilis.
PLATE VIII.

Psittacara frontata, Vig. in Zool. Journ. v. ii. p. 389. —

Sittace nobilis, Wagler, in Abhand. £c., p. 661 Psit-

tacus nobilis, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 85. sp. 9 Psitt. Guia-

nensis, Kuhl9 Consp. Psitt. p. 19. sp. 11. — Arara macro-
gnathus, Spix^ Av. Bras. i. t. 25. fig. 102.

INSTEAD of the large bare space which occupies
the whole of the face and cheeks of the large Mac-
caws, the nakedness in this bird is confined to the
orbits, and a space between the eyes and the bill,
continuous with the cere which covers the base of
the latter. The bill itself, though equally massive
and powerful in comparison to the bulk of the bird,
is differently shaped, the tip being suddenly drawn
to a very sharp and delicate point. It is a na-
tive of Brazil, Paraguay, and other parts of South
America, and occurs in great numbers upon the
banks of the Amazons. Its food consists of the
kernels of the harder fruits, for obtaining which, its
powerful bill is admirably adapted. In disposition
it is wild, and not easily tamed ; and, though noisy

118 NOBLE PARROT MACCAW.

and vociferous in its native woods, appears to pos-
sess little or no capability of imitating the sounds of
the human voice. Its length is above 12 inches, of
which the tail measures about six. The upper man-
dible is yellowish -white, the under ctaep greenish
grey. The cere, orbits, and denuded space, yellow ;
the forehead and eyebrows are azure-blue, the fea-
thers rather rigid, and of open texture ; the crown
of the head, the neck, and the whole of the upper
and under parts of the body are of a fine lively grass-
green. The elbow and ridge of the wings, as well
as part of the inferior wing-coverts, are vermilion-
red. The wings and tail are green above, the under
surface of a dusky wax-yellow. The feet are black-
ish-grey, the claws black, strong, and falcate.

119

FROM the Maccaw division we now proceed to
the subfamily Psittacina, containing a numerous as-
semblage of species, distinguished by their compa-
ratively stout and generally even tail. The largei
species of this division answer to M. Kuhl's fourth
section Psittacus, and are usually known among us by
the special title of Parrots. These by Wagler, in his
Monographia Psittacorum, have since been divided
into several groups, and constitute his genera Eclcc-
tus, Psittacodis, Psittacus, and Pionus. In this
subfamily, the bill, though very powerful and strong,
is more elongated than in the Maccaws and Cocka-
toos, the head is large, and the face, with some few
exceptions, covered with feathers. The tail is short,
with the end even, or else slightly rounded ; and the
wings are generally ample and long. It forms the
typical group of the family, and is nearly allied to
the Cockatoos, or subfamily Plyctolophina, by some
interesting forms, among which may be mention-
ed Nestor kypopolius, Wagler, and by some of its
smaller members, to the short-tailed diminutive spe-
cies of the Lory division ; while their connection
with the MacrocercincB is supported by the forms
previously adverted to. The species are found dis-
tributed in Asia, Africa, and America, and are all
inhabitants of the torrid zone. Many are gregarious,
except during the period of incubation. They breed

120 GENUS PS1TTACUS.

in the hollows of decayed trees, and most of the
species are supposed to lay only two white eggs,
which are incuhated alternately by both sexes. In
disposition, they are the most docile of the family,
and possess the power of imitating the human voice
in as great, or perhaps greater perfection, than any
of the other divisions.

The first illustration belongs to the genus Psitta-
cus, as restricted by Wagler, the characters of which
are, — Bill strong-, proportionate, the upper mandible
with the culmen slightly narrowed, the tip, with its
under surface, rough with elevated ridges, strongly
toothed or emarginate, under mandible slightly com-
pressed, with the cutting edges sinuated. Tongue
thick, fleshy, smooth. Cere broad. Nostrils large,
orbicular, placed in the cere near the base of the bill.
Tail rather short, even at the end. Feet, the tarsi
short, strong, and depressed, the two exterior toes
long, and nearly equal. Plumage compact, the fea-
thers of the neck broad, truncate, and imbricated.
With the exception of the Grey Parrot, Psitt. ery-
thacus, Linn., which, although provisionally re-
tained in Wagler's genus, it is likely will eventually
be separated from it, on account of its geographical
distribution, the nudity of its face, and some other
minor characters, the rest of the species belong to
the tropical regions of America. The ground or
prevailing colour is green, varied in different birds,
with red, blue, and yellow. They are of a docile
disposition, and of great imitative powers, on which

GENUS PSITTACUS. 121

account they are held in high estimation, and fre-
quently kept caged. They are nearly related to
Wagler's genera Psittacodis and Eclectics, the latter
of which appears to lead to the larger Indian Lories ;
but of these genera, and that of Pionus, another
group, of which Psittacus menstruus, Auct., is the
type, our limits do not permit us to give illustrative
figures. The subject of the next Plate is the

FESTIVE PARROT.

Psiitacus festivus. — Auc TO R "j M.

PLATE IX.

Psittacus festivus, Linn — Lath, <|c. — Wagler, Mon. Psitt.
in Abhand. $c. p. 580. — Le Perroquet Tahua de Cay.

Ruff. PL Enl. 480 Perroquet Tavoua, Le Vaill pi. 129.

Festive Parrot, Lath. Syn. i. p. 298. 102.

WE have illustrated the American group of Parrots
by a figure of the Festive Parrot, which possesses all
the typical characteristics of the genus. It is a native
of South America, inhabiting Guiana, Cayenne, and
the Brazils, particularly the banks of the river Ama-
zons, and affects the forests, where it procures a con-
stant supply of food in the various seeds and kernels of
fruits. It is docile, and easily tamed, and, being of
an imitative disposition, readily learns to pronounce
words and sentences with great clearness and preci-
sion. In size, it exceeds the common Amazons
Parrot, measuring between 15 and 16 inches in ex-
treme length. The bill is of a pale flesh colour,
strong, and with the upper mandible distinctly tooth-
ed. The nostrils are large and open, placed in the
cere at the base of the bill. The narrow frontal

PLATE !).

1' S I T T A C IT S I- E S T IV VS.

i-Y stive }';\:

(UNIVERSITY )

FESTIVE PARROT. 123

band and eye-streak are deep red, with a purplish
tinge. Ahove and behind the eyes, the feathers are
pale azure-blue. The lower back and rump are
deep vermilion-red, the greater quills and seconda-
ries have their outer webs of a deep blue, the interior
webs being: greenish-black. The remainder of the
plumage of the upper and under parts of the body
is green. The tail is short, being about four inches
in length, nearly even at the end, the outmost fea-
ther on each side, with its exterior web, margined
with blue ; the rest are green, with a small spot of
pale red near their bases, except the two interme-
diate feathers, which are wholly green. The legs
are stout, and of a bluish-grey or leaden colour.

AMAZONS' PARROT.

Psittacus Amazonius — AUCTORUM.

Psittacus Amazonius, Briss. Av. 4. p. 256 — Wagler, Mon.

Psitt. in Abhand. £c, p. 496. and 588 Spix. Av. Bras.

p. 45 — Le Peroquet Amazone, Buff. PL Enl. 547

Aourou Parrot, Shawls Zool. 8. p. 508. pi. 76.

THE true Amazons' Parrot has so frequently been
confounded and mixed up with other nearly allied
species, that a description of it may not be unac-
ceptable to our readers, especially as it is a kind
frequently brought to Europe, on account of its col-
loquial powers, and known, like others of its con-

124 AMAZONS PARROT.

genera, by the common appellation of Green Parrot.
In dimensions it is inferior to the Festive Parrot, its
length seldom exceeding twelve inches : the bill is
less powerful, but similar in form, its colour orange-
yellow, with a whitish tip. The cheeks, chin, and
angles at the base of the bill are yellow ; the fore-
head and eye-streak violet-purple, the bases of the
feathers being yellow : the occiput and hind-neck
are green, each feather edged with black. The rest
of the upper and under plumage is of a fine green.
The four lateral tail-feathers nearest the two middle
ones have their outer webs green, verging to yel-
low at the base and apex ; the inner webs yellow,
with a large central red spot, intersected by a trans-
verse green one : the fifth and sixth have the basal
half of the outer webs green, the remainder yellow ;
the inner webs with their bases and tips yellow, the
middle part being green : the next is distinguished
by a pale red spot j and the remainder have their
bases green, which passes into yellow near the tips.
The margin of the carpus or lower ridge of the
wing is frequently of an orange-red. The first pri-
mary quill is black above : beneath, the inner web ex-
hibits at the base a rich tinge of verdigris-green, the
second, third, and fourth, have their exterior webs
green, with azure reflections ; the fifth, sixth, seventh,
and eighth, are green from the base to the middle,
the other part being deep azure blue, the inner webs
black ; the ninth to the twelfth greenish near the
base, passing forwards into brownish- red, which,

AMAZONS PARROT. 125

near the ends of the feathers, becomes of a deep
blue : the under surface of all the quills is of a cop-
per or verdigris-green colour. This bird inhabits
South America, being common in Guiana and Bra-
zil, particularly near the banks of the river Amazons.
It feeds upon fruits, particularly that of the Rhizo-
phora Mangle, in the decayed trunks of which trees
it also deposits its eggs. It is also very destructive
to the orange plantations. It is easily tamed, and
learns to repeat with facility a number of words and
short sentences. When alarmed or excited, it erects
the nuchal feathers.

126

ASH-COLOURED OR GREY PARROT.

Psittacus erythacus — LINN^US.

PLATE X.

Psittacus erythacus, Linn. Syst. Nat. et Auct. — Psittacus
Guianensis cinereus, Bris. t. pi. 310. No. 49 — Peroquet
cendre deGuine'e, Buff. PL Enl. 311.— Ash-coloured Par-
rot, Shaw's ZooL 8. pi. 486.

MANY of our readers will recognise an old and
amusing acquaintance in the characteristic figure of
this well-known species, not, indeed, conspicuous for
that brilliancy and variety of plumage which distin-
guishes the great majority of the tribe, but remark-
able for its docility and mimicry, the faculty it pos-
sesses of imitating the human voice, as well as any
other sound, its never-ceasing garrulity, and its clear
and distinct articulation. In most of these particu-
lars, it surpasses the rest of its congeners-, on which
account it has always been held in high estimation
by the bird -fancier and lover of living curiosities.
This we learn from the large sums that have at all
times been offered and given for highly-gifted or
well taught individuals. Even as early as A. D.
1500, we read of a Parrot at Rome, supposed to be
of this species, for which 100 gold pieces were given

rSlTTAt TS KJJYTH.MTS.

Ash Cnlonrc'l or C.-ITV Tarrot .

ASH-COLOURED Oil GREY PARROT. 127

by a Cardinal. Its merits, however, appear to have
been of a kind well calculated at that period to
create an unusual degree of astonishment, and a
feeling of the marvellous, as it had learned to repeat
with clearness, and without hesitation, the whole Oi
the Apostles' creed. Willughby, also, in his old
and excellent work on Ornithology, mentions the
high prices brought by Parrots of various species in
Holland, and other parts of the Continent. To enu-
merate the various anecdotes related of this bird,
would not only occupy more space than the nature
of our work will allow, but would, in a great mea-
sure, be only repeating what has already so frequent-
ly been told in the works and compilations of other
writers. We shall only observe, that, in many of
the marvellous stories recorded of Parrots, particu-
larly all such as relate to answers seemingly appro-
priate and consequent to questions put to them, and
which some authors would almost seem to imply
were dictated by intelligence, or that the birds really
understood the import of what was asked, are mere-
ly the result, under accidental and fortunate circum-
tstances, of what had previously been taught them
by frequent repetition, to articulate by rote.

The imitative propensity of the Parrot, amusing
as it in general may be, is, however, sometimes to
be guarded against, and productive of untoward ac-
cidents, as the following instance related to us will
shew. A Parrot which was kept upon a quay in a
sua-port town, had learned the term, with its appro-

128 ASH-COLOURED OR GREY PARROT.

priate enunciation, used by carters in backing, that
is, making the horse, by a retrograde motion, place
the cart or waggon in the most convenient station
for loading or unloading. This term the bird one
day made use of, when a cart and horse had impru-
dently been left unattended for a short time, and the
horse, obeying the mandate of the bird, continued
to keep moving backwards, till both were precipi-
tated over the quay, and the unfortunate animal was
drowned.

The ^ Grey Parrot is a native of western Africa,
from whence it appears to have been imported to
a very early period ; but common and well known
as it is in a state of captivity, its peculiar habits
and economy in a state of nature are still but little
and imperfectly known. Like most of its kind, it is
said to breed in the hollows of decayed trees ; and
the instinctive propensity for such situations does
not appear to desert it even in a state of captivity ;
for Buffon mentions a pair in France, that, for five
or six years successively, produced and brought up
their young, and that the place they selected for this
purpose was a cask partly filled with saw-dust. Its.
eggs are stated to be generally four in number, their
colour white, and in size equal to those of a pigeon.
In its native state, the food of the Parrot consists of
the kernels of various fruits, and the seeds of other
vegetables ; but when domesticated, or kept caged,
its principal diet is generally bread and milk, varied
with nuts, almonds, &c., and even pieces of dressed

ASH- COLOURED OR GREY PARROT. 129

meat. When feeding, it often holds its food clasped in
the foot, and, before swallowing, masticates or re-
duces it to small pieces by its powerful bill and pa-
latial cutters. This member, so unlike that of other
frugivorous birds, is admirably calculated for the
principal offices it has to perform, viz. breaking the
shells of the hardest fruits and seeds, and as a
strong and powerful organ of prehension and sup-
port ; for few of our readers but must have observed
that the bill is always first used, and chiefly depend-
ed upon when a Parrot is caged, in climbing or
moving from one position to another. The longe-
vity of the feathered race, we believe, in general far
exceeds what is commonly supposed, at least if we
may judge from the age attained by various birds,
even when subjected to captivity and confinement.
Thus, we have instances of eagles living for half a
century : the same of ravens, geese, and other large
birds, as well as among the smaller kinds usually kept
caged. The Parrot appears to yield to none of these,
and several instances are upon record of their having
reached the remarkable age of sixty or seventy years.
Among these, none is more interesting than that of an
individual mentioned by M. Le Vaillant, which had
lived in a state of domesticity for no less than ninety-
three years. At the time that eminent naturalist saw
it, it was in a state of entire decrepitude, and in a
kind of lethargic condition, its sight and memory
being both gone, and was fed at intervals with bis-
cuit soaked in Madeira wine. In the time of its

130 ASH-COLOURED OR GREY PAROT.

youth and vigour it had been distinguished for its
colloquial powers, and distinct enunciation, and was
of so docile and obedient a disposition, as to fetch its
master's slippers when required, as well as to call the
servants, &c. At the age of sixty, its memory began to
fail, arid, instead of acquiring any new phrase, it began
to lose those it had before attained, and to intermix,
in a discordant manner, the words of its former lan-
guage. It moulted regularly every year till the age
of sixty-five, when this process grew irregular, and
the tail became yellow, after which, no farther change
of plumage took place. It is subject to variety, as
shewn in the figure of Edwards, where the ground
colour is mixed witji red. In size it measures about
12 inches in length. The bill is black, strong, and
much hooked, and the orbits, and space between them
and the eyes, covered with a naked and white skin
The whole of the plumage, with the exception of th*
tail, which is of a bright deep scarlet, is of an ash-
grey colour, deepest upon the back, and the feathers
finely relieved and margined with paler grey. The
irides are of a pale yellowish-white, the feet and toes
grey, tinged with flesh-red.

The limited number of engravings not admitting
of a figure illustrative of every group, we can only
-emedy the deficiency by a description of such spe-
cies as are remarkable, or typical of their respective
genera. The Short and Even-tailed Parrots, as pre-
viously observed, have been divided by Wagler into

ASH-COLOURED OR GREY PARROT. 131

several generic heads ; but whether all of these will
stand the ^st of such a separation, or are only to be
regarded u75 slightly aberrant forms of the genus
Psittacus, must depend upon a strict analysis of all
the species. We shall, however, here consider them
as forming distinct groups, detailing the principal
characters of each as given by that eminent natural-
ist. The first is that of Eclectus> represented by the
Eclectus Linncei, Wagler, and' EC. grandis, Wagler
(the Psittacus grandis of Latham, &c.), which dif-
fer from his restricted genus Psittacus in the form
of the bill, the under mandible being narrower, the*
cere at the base scarcely visible, and the nostril
placed farther back, and hidden by the feathers or
the brow. The texture of the plumage upon the
head and neck is also different, being long and silky.
He considers them to represent the parrots of Ame-
rica, Africa, and Asia, and also to bring them
nearer in connexion with the larger lories. The
following is a description of the

132

GRAND ELECTUS.

Electus grandis. — WAGLER.

Electus grandis, Wagler, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. &c. pp.
495, 472.— Psittacus grand is, Kuhfs Consp. p. 38, No. 50.

Lath. Ind.'Orn. i. p. 116, sp. 112, var. B Psittacus jan-

thinus, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 90, sp. 24. — Peroquet grand
Lori, (male), Le Vaillant, Tab. 126. — Lori de la nouvelle
Guinee, Buff. PI. Enl 683 — Grand Lory, Lath. Syn. i.
p. 275, sp. 81 ; Shaw's Zool. Tiii. p. 533, pi. 80.

THIS elegant species, which exceeds the Amazons
Parrot in size, is a native of the Moluccas and New
Guinea. In appearance, and the colour of its plu-
mage, it approaches the larger lories, a resemblance
also indicated by the name given to it by Latham
and others. The bill is black, with the culmen of
the upper mandible rounded ; the nostrils placed at
the base of the bill, and concealed from view ; the
eyes yellow, and the ophthalmic region entirely cloth-
ed with feathers. The taad and upper neck are of a
rich crimson red ; the lower neck, breast, belly, and
upper part of the thighs, are lilac purple ; the man-
tle, back, scapulars, wing-coverts, and upper tail-
coverts, rich scarlet, with a purplish tinge. The
flexure of the wings, and outer webs of the quills,
are azure blue ; the vent and apical fascia of the tail
yellow.

The next group indicated by Wagler is that of
Psittacodis, the principal character of distinction

LE VALLANT'S PIONUS. 133

consisting in the want of the tooth or angular pro-
cess on the upper mandible. The members belong-
ing to it are also natives of Asia and Australasia, and
the Psitt. magnus, Psitt - Paragua, Psitt. Sumatra-
nus, and Psitt. tarabe, Auct., belong to it. A third
group is that of Pionus, which embraces a variety
of species belonging to Asia, Africa, and America,
and which, judging from the difference of geographi-
cal distribution, it is likely may require still further
division. In the form of the tongue and feet, it
agrees with the genus Psittacus proper, but the tail
is comparatively shorter, the wings longer, and, when
closed, in many species extending beyond the tip of
the tail. The head is large, and the body short and
thick. An example of this group is

LE VAILLANT'S PIONUS.
Pionus Le Vaillantii. — WAGLER.

Pionus Le Vaillantii, Wagler, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. &c.
pp. 499, 614 — Psittacus robustus, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 94.
— Psittacus Le Vaillantii, Lath. Sup. ; Kuhl, Consp.
Psitt. p. 83 — Psittacus infuscatus, Shaw's Zool. viii. p. 523.

— Peroquet a franges souci, Le Vaitt. Tab. 130 et 131

Robust Parrot, Lath. Syn. i. pp. 296, 100 Damask Par.

rot, Shaw's Zool. viii. 523.

THIS is an African species, inhabiting, at a certain
period, the eastern parts of that continent, as high

134 LE VAILLANT'S PJONUS.

as latitude 32° It was first discovered and figured
by Le Vaillant, who informs us, that it only resides
in the woods, in the latitude above mentioned, du-
ring the season of reproduction* quitting them for
warmer districts on the approach of the rainy season,
after it has reared its young ; and that, during these
migratory movements, the flocks fly so high as to be
beyond the reach of sight, though their screams or
call-notes can still be heard. As usual in this family,
the hollow of a tree is the receptacle for the eggs,
which are four in number, in size equal to those of
a pigeon, and which are incubated alternately by
both sexes. The young, when first hatched, are
naked, but soon become covered with greyish down.
Their plumage is not perfected till after an interval
of six weeks, and they remain a considerable time
longer in the nest, during which they are fed by the
parents, who disgorge in the manner of pigeons. In
an interesting detail of their habits, he observes that
they are remarkably fond of bathing, and are ob-
served to fly everyday, and at the same hour, to the
water for this purpose. The hours of feeding are
also very regular, and the whole day is distributed
by rule — a fact we have observed to prevail among
other birds. At dawn of day, the whole flight of
each district assembles, and alights with much noise
on one or more dead trees, according to the size of
the flock, and there, displaying their wings to the
first rays of the sun, recal to mind the idea of some
ancient race, of simple manners, assembled on some

LE VAILLANT'S PIONUS. 135

hill to chaunt a hymn in honour of the God of Day,
The reason, however, of this assembly of the parrots,
is to warm and dry their plumage, moistened and
chilled by the dews of night, which in these regions
is often cold, and always damp. When once warmed,
and their plumage dry, they arise in small flocks,
and fly around in quest of their favourite fruit, a
kind of cherry, the stone of which they break, in or-
der to obtain the kernel. This their morning's meal
continues till about 10 or 11 o'clock, at which time
all the separate flocks fly to the water to bathe.
When the heat of day commences, they again seek
the deep recesses of the woods, in order to enjoy the
refreshment of the shade ; and at this time they keep
a silence so profound, that not a sound shall be heard
by a person sitting beneath a tree, though the branches
above be crowded with legions of parrots ; but on
the report of a gun, the whole flock fly off with the
rapidity of lightning, with a confused mixture of the
most discordant screams.

When this their time of rest is elapsed, they again
disperse, in order to obtain their second or evening
meal ; after which, all the flocks of the whole district
reassemble with much noise and animation, and this
is the signal for their second visit to the water, which
is often far distant, as only the purest will please
them. They are then seen confusedly and playfully
rolling over each other on the margins of the pool,
at times dipping their heads and wings into the wa-
ter, in such a manner as to scatter it all over their

136 LE VAILLANT'S PIONUS.

plumage, and exhibiting a most entertaining spec-
tacle to the observer. This ceremonial being finished,
they revisit the trees on which they assembled at
sunrise, where they sit for some time engaged in
adjusting and pruning their feathers. This finished,
they fly off in pairs, each pair retiring to its peculiar
roost, where they rest till morning.

The bill is large, the culmen biangulate, the to-
miae sinuated, but not distinctly toothed ; its colour
whitish. The head, neck, and breast are of an olive
green colour, deepest upon the forehead and crown ;
the lores or space between the bill and eyes black.
The mantle, scapulars, and wing-coverts are brown-
ish-black, the feathers margined with green. The
lower back, upper tail-coverts, abdomen, and under
tail-coverts, emerald green. The ridge of the wings
and thighs are bright reddish-orange. The quills
and tail brownish-black, slightly tinged with green.
Legs and toes grey.

IN addition to Wagler's genera Psittacodis, Eclec-
ius> and Pionus, which contain the other larger spe-
cies of the short even- tailed Parrots, we are inclined
to place in this subfamily several small species, which,
in Kuhl's Conspectus, form a portion of his section
Psittaculct) and are also included in Wagler's more
restricted genus of the same name. Both of these
groups are, however, so constituted, as to embrace

LEVAILLANTTS PIONUS. 137

birds of dissimilar form and habits, and widely se-
parated in regard to their geographical distribution.
In some, as those inhabiting the islands of the Pa-
cific, the bill is slender and weak, as in the Lories ;
the tongue is also supposed to be furnished with de-
licate papillae. These we have little hesitation in
placing in that subfamily. Others have the bill
powerful and thick, with the upper mandible strong-
ly toothed ; the wings long, and the tail short, and
nearly even. To this group, the Psittacus Swinde-
rianus of Kuhl, and the Psittacus Malaccensis, Lath.,
appear to belong. For the present, the title of Aga-
pornis is given to them, though it is not unlikely
that a farther division may be required, when their
habits and economy are better known. The only
illustration we can give of these diminutive Parrots
is that of

SWINDERN'S LOVE-BIRD.

Agapornis Swinderianus.

PLATE XL

Psittacus Swinderianus, Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in Nov. Act.,
&c.,p. 104, pi. 2.— Psittacula Swinderiana, Wagler, Mon.
Psitt. in Abhand. &c., p. 621.

THIS beautiful little species is a native of South-
ern Africa, and was first described and figured by
Kuhl, in his " Conspectus Psittacorum," under the
title of Psittacus Swinderianus ; it was included in
that section named by him Psittacula, in which he
placed the whole of the smaller species with short
and even or slightly rounded tails — an artificial divi-
sion, and established without due regard to the struc-
ture, habits, or distribution of the species. Little is
known respecting its natural history, being a bird of
rare occurrence, ind even now only seen in a few
collections. In the form and strength of its bill, it
shews an affinity to the larger parrots, which is still
more strongly indicated in another species, the Psit-
tacus Malaccensis of Latham. In size it is among
the smallest of its race, its extreme length being
about six inches. The bill is black, strong, with the

A&APORWIS S \\TLNDERIANUS.

Swmderirs Love Bird.
Native of S. Africa,

SWINDERN'S LOVE-BIRD. 139

upper mandible emarginate. The head and nape
are of a beautiful lively green, bounded by a black
nuchal-collar ; the neck and breast are yellowish-
green ; the mantle and wings are green ; the lower
back and upper tail-coverts are deep azure blue.
The tail, which is short and nearly even, has the two
intermediate feathers wholly green ; the rest on each
side have their basal half vermilion-red, bounded by
a bar of black, the tips being green. The legs and
toes are greyish- black. The wings are long, and,
when closed, reach to the end of the tail.

In this subfamily we have also placed another
very interesting form, from Australia ; it is repre-
sented by the Psittacus Nestor of Latham, and now
forms the type of Wagler's genus Nestor. This
bird is supposed to form a connecting link between
the Parrots and Cockatoos, though it must be con-
fessed that more correct information respecting its
history and habits is necessary, before its true situa-
tion and direct affinities can be satisfactorily ascer-
tained. The characters of the genus Nestor of Wag-
ler are : — Bill elongate, the upper mandible com-
pressed, hooked; the tomia sinuated, but not dis-
tinctly toothed ; the tip projecting, with its under
surface sulcated and deeply excavated for the recep-
tion of the tip of the under mandible ; under man-
dible narrow, compressed, slightly convex, or form-
ing, when closed, an obtuse angle with the upper ;

140 GENUS NESTOR.

wings rather long, ample ; tail of moderate length,
and even at the end, the tips of the shafts bare, and
slightly projecting beyond the feathered part. The
following plate represents the

PLATE 12.

^at. iiand

141

SOUTHERN NESTOR

Nestor hypopollus — WAGLER.
PLATE XII.

Nestor hypopolius, Wag. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand- &c., p. 505
and 696 — Psittacus nestor, Lath. Ind. Orn. 1, p. 110
sp. 85 ; Kuhl, Consp. Psitt. in Nov. Act. &c., p. 86 —
Psitt. Australis, Shaw^ Mus. Lever, p. 87. — Southern
Brown Parrot, Lath. Syn. 1, p. 264, 70.

THIS curious and remarkable-looking bird, wbich,
in some respects, appears to approach tbe Cockatoos,
particularly the black species, or Geringores, is a
native of New Zealand. Of its natural history we
have no particulars in the descriptions given by La-
tham, Wagler, &c., these being merely confined to
the form of the parts and the colour of the plumage.
Its differently-shaped bill, which, in addition to a
greater elongation than thai of the other Parrots,
.possesses other peculiarities of structure, and the de-
nuded tips of the shafts of the tail-feathers seem,
however, to indicate an economy in some respects
dissimilar to that of the other groups with which it
is for the present associated. The bill, which is

1 42 SOUTHERN NESTOR.

large, is of a grey colour, with the tip darker. The
forehead and crown are greyish-white, slightly tinged
with green; the face and ear-coverts are yellow,
tinged near the base of the bill with red. The sides
of the neck, breast, and abdomen are all dull red ;
the feathers margined with oil-green. The back and
wings are of a brownish oil-green. The rump and
vent are deep red. The tail is brownish-green.
The legs and feet are grey, tinged with brown*

GENUS PLYCTOLOPHUS. 143

The next primary division is that of the Cocka-
toos, or subfamily Plyctolophina^ Vigors, represent-
ing the Rasorial Order, in the circle of the Psittacidse.
It contains, besides the true Cockatoos, distinguished
by their white or light coloured plumage, the vari-
ous black or dark coloured birds belonging to the
genus Calyptorynchus, Vigors, which we here desig-
nate Geringores. a name given to some of the species
by the natives of New Holland, in which interesting
country they are chiefly met with. The birds of
this division are among the largest of the Parrot
tribe, and most of them, in a greater or less degree,
are crested. The bill in the Geringore group, though
short, and nearly concealed by the projecting fea-
thers of the face, is remarkable for its strength and
depth at the base. In addition to seeds, they are
said to feed upon the roots of bulbous plants. In
disposition, the birds of this subfamily are generally
wilder and less tractable than many of the other
groups of the Psittacidse, They breed in the holei
of decayed trees, and their eggs are seldom more
than two in number. The first group we have to
notice is that of the genus Plyctolophus, Vieillot,
of which the characters are : — Bill deep at the
Base, greatly arched and strong, the upper mandible
forming nearly the fourth part of a circle, the tip

144 GENUS PLYCTOLOPHUS.

narrowed and acute, overhanging the lower mandi-
ble ; the tomia or cutting edges sinuated or toothed ;
under mandible narrower than the upper ; the tongue
thick, fleshy, and smooth ; nostrils lateral, in the cere
at the base of the bill ; head crested, the crest com-
posed of two rows of acuminate feathers, the tip di-
rected forwards, and which can be erected or de-
pressed at will ; cheeks plumed ; tail rather short,
even ; plumage compact, the tips of the feathers
rounded, truncate ; feet robust ; tarsi short and re-
ticulated.

The Cockatoos, so called from the usual call-note
of the species, form a well marked genus, readily
distinguished from the other groups of the Psittaci-
dse by their light and uniform colour, which is white,
or white tinged more or less, according to the species,
with sulphur-yellow or rose-red, by their peculiar
shaped crest, and by their short and even tail. The
massive and powerful bill, as well as the robust scan-
sorial feet of this section, evidently point to the si-
tuation they hold in the family ; and, with the near-
ly allied genus Calyptorynchus and some other forms
which sustain the connexion with more distant groups,
they are considered as representing the Rasorial
group of the family. They are natives of Australia
and the Indian Isles, where they inhabit the woods
and forests of these luxuriant climes. They feed
apon the seeds of various trees and plants, being
able, with their powerful bill, to break the stones of
tl*e hardest fruits. Their nidification is similar to

GENUS PLYCTOLOPHUS.

145

that of the great body of the Psittacidae, the holes
of decayed trees being the receptacle for the eggs
and young. They are easily tamed when taken at
an early age, but do not possess the imitative powers
of the true Parrots, seldom being able to acquire
more than two or three words besides their own pe-
culiar note or cry of cockatoo. The first we have to
notice is the

146

TRICOLOUR-CRESTED COCKATOO

Plyctolophus Leadbeateri. — VIGORS.
PLATE XIII.

Plyctolophus Leadbeateri, Vigors, Philos. Mag. 1831 p. 55.
Learns Parrots. — Cacatua Leadbeateri, Wag. Mon. Psitt.
in Abhand. 692, sp. 3.

DISTINGUISHED by its tricoloured crest of scarlet,
yellow, and white, composed, like that of the other
Cockatoos, of long acuminate feathers, with the tips
directed forwards, and which can be erected and ex-
panded like a fan, or depressed at the pleasure of
the bird. It is a native of Australia, and was first
made known and described from a specimen which
came into the possession of Mr Leadbeater, well
known to ornithologists, and whose name Mr Vigors
has selected for its specific title. In size it fuMy
equals, or perhaps a little exceeds, the lesser Sulphur-
crested Cockatoo. The bill is of a pale greyish-
white ; the upper mandible strongly sinuated and
toothed ; the irides of a deep brown ; the naked or-
bits whitish. The feathers at the immediate base of
the bill are crimson, forming a narrow band or fillet ;
those of the forehead are whitet tinged with red.

PLATE 13

TLYCTOLOJ'HUS LEAJHiEATElU.

Trirolour-ri rsird Cockatoo
Native of Ansi ra',1 La .

TRICOLOUR-CRESTED COCKATOO. 147

The feathers forming the proper crest are long and
acuminate, the tips bending forwards, their basal
half crimson, divided by a bar of rich yellow, the re-
mainder pure white. The whole of the body is
white, tinged deeply with crimson upon the neck,
breast, flanks, and under tail-coverts. The under
surface of the wings is rich crimson-red. Its legs
and toes are deep grey, the scales distinctly marked
by lighter lines. Of its peculiar habits and economy
we are unable to give any detailed account, which
we greatly regret, as it is the knowledge of these in-
teresting particulars, which point to the natural
station of each individual, and mark the minute
differences between nearly allied species, that give a
zest to the study, and reward the naturalist for the
drier and more technical parts of zoological science.
Another Australian species is the Helmeted Cocka-
too, Plyctolophus galeritus, enumerated by Mr
Vigors and Dr Horsfield in their description of the
Australian birds in the collection of the Linnsean
Society ; and as its habits are presumed to resemble
in many respects those of the other species, we quote
their observations, as extracted from M. Caley's
Notes. " This bird is called by the natives Car- away
and Cur-iang. I have often met with it in large
flocks at the influx of the Grose and the Hawkes-
bury Rivers, below Mulgo'ey on the former river,
and in the long meadow near the Nepean River.
They are shy, and not easily approached. The flesh
of the young ones is accounted good eating. I have

148 TRICOLOUR-CRESTED COCKATOO.

heard from the natives that it makes its nest in the
rotten limbs of trees, of nothing more than the vege-
table mould formed by the decayed parts of the
bough ; that it has no more than two young ones at
a time ; and that the eggs are white, without spots.
The natives first find where the nests are, by the
bird making cotora in an adjoining tree, which lies
in conspicuous heaps on the ground. Cotora is the
bark stripped off the smaller branches, and cut into
email pieces. When the young ones are nearly
fledged, the old birds cut a quantity of small branches
from the adjoining trees, but never from that in which
the nest is situated. They are sometimes found to
enter the hollow limb as far as two yards. The
nests are generally found in a black-butted gum-tree,
and also in Coroy'bo, Cajim- bora9 and Yarrotvarry
trees (species of Eucalyptus)" Our next figure re-
presents the

149

LESSER SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO.

Ptyctolophus sulphureus. — VIEILLOT.
PLATE XIV.

Plyctolophus sulphureus, Learns Parrots. — Psittacus sul-
phurous, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 105, sp. 81 ; Shawls ZooL
vol. viii. p. 480, pi. 73. — Cacatua sulphurea, Wagler^
Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. $c. p. 695, sp. 7 — Lesser White
Cockatoo, with yellow crest, Edwards, 7, t. 317.

THIS species we frequently see in confinement ;
for though rarely able to articulate more than a fev
words, its handsome appearance, docile disposition,
and amusing habits, render it a great favourite with
those who delight in feathered pets. It is kind and
affectionate to those it is accustomed to see, and
who feed and take care of it; but suspicious of
strangers, whose caresses it rarely admits of with
impunity. When alarmed or irritated, it erects the
crest to the fullest extent, making a peculiar noise ;
at other times it is kept depressed, and hanging over
the nape of the neck.

The general plumage of the body is white, slight-
ly tinted upon the breast, sides, and inner wing-co-
verts with pale sulphur yellow. The crest, in form

150 LESSER SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO.

like that of the other species, and auricular spot, are
fine sulphur yellow. The legs and toes are grey :
the irides red. It is a native of the Moluccas, and
other Indian islands ; but of its natural habits we
have again to regret deficiency of information. In
captivity, the female sometimes produces eggs, and
we now have specimens by us which were laid by
one at rather peculiar periods, viz. the 21st June,
21st of September, and 21st of December; but whe-
ther this resulted from the peculiar economy of the
bird, as acted upon by the seasons, or was the effect
of the confinement, we are unable to determine.

151

In addition to the species described, the following
belong to this present genus, viz. Plyctolophus Philip-
pinarum, Red-crested Cockatoo, a native of the Phi-
lippine Islands; Plyct. Moluccensis, Wag., the Great
red-crested Cockatoo, which is found in the Mo-
luccas, Sumatra, &c. ; Plyct. cristata, Wag., also a
native of the Moluccas, and the Plyct. rosei-capil-
lus, Vieill. (Psittacus Eos. of Kuhl), which, how-
ever, departs from the type in the form and struc-
ture of the crest, approaching in this respect nearer
to Wagler's genus Licmetis, which is represented by
the Psittacus nasicus of Temminck, described in the
13th volume of the Transactions of the Linnaean
Society, and in the "Planches Coloriees," plate 351.

Nearly allied to the Cockatoos, and included in
that genus by many authors, is the Red-crowned
Parrot (Psittacus galeatus of Latham, Kuhl, &c.)
It forms the type of Wagler's genus Corydon, and,
according to the views of that author, forms the con-
necting medium between the Cockatoos and the ge-
nus Calyptorynchus of Vigors and Horsfield, upon
which we are about to enter, and for which group
we propose to give the title of Geringore, taken from
the name applied to one of the finest and largest
species by the natives of Australia. The characters
of the genus Calyptorynchus are: — Bill thick,
very strong, much higher than long, wide at the
base, compressed towards the culmen, greatly arch-

152 GENUS CALYPTORYNCHUS.

ed, and describing in its profile nearly a semicircle,
the tip not much elongated, and bending inwards ;
under mandible massive, dilated, wider than the
upper, toothed, and deeply emarginate in front,
nearly concealed by the feathers of the cheeks ; or-
bits and lores naked ; tongue simple, smooth ; nos-
trils large, round, lateral, placed behind the corneous
base of the bill ; wings ample, rounded, the second,
third, fourth, and fifth quills the longest, and nearly
equal, their exterior webs emarginate towards the
middle ; tail of mean length, broad, slightly round-
ed ; feet and toes rather weak, the tarsi short. The
width and peculiar form of the lower mandible, and
the shortness of the whole bill, as compared with its
depth at the base, as well as its semilunar profile, are
characters alone of sufficient importance to separate
the members of this group from the true Cockatoos*
In addition, the crest which exists is of a different
form ; the tail is more elongated and rounded, and
the ground or prevailing colour of the species, instead
of being light, is always dark, varying from black to
blackish-grey and blackish-green. So far as our li-
mited acquaintance with their habits extends, they
appear to be birds of a wilder and fiercer disposition
than the generality of the Psittacidae, and less gre-
garious than the conterminous genera. They are
said to feed greatly upon bulbous roots, as well as
on fruits and seeds ; and the denuded tip of the ra-
chis of the tail-feathers indicates something peculiar,
and with which we are yet unacquainted, in their

GENUS CALYMtfRYNCHUS. 153

economy. The holes of decayed trees are the re-
ceptacles for their eggs, which are said rarely to ex-
ceed two or three in number. They are natives of
Australia, to which the group appears to be confined.
The subject selected to illustrate the genus is the

154

-ITY

SlfiLLATED GERINGORE.

Catyptorynchus stellatus. — WAGLER. 4

PLATE XV.

Calyptorynchus stellatus, Wagler, Mono. Psitt. in Abhand.
$c.9 p. 685, sp. 3 __ Banksian Cockatoo, Lath. Syn. Sup.
ii. var. ii. p. 92.

THIS species, which appears to bear a near affi-
nity to the Calyptorynchus Solandri of Vigors and
Horsf. (Psittacus Solandri, Temm.), and with which
it seems to have been confounded, is described as a
distinct species by Wagler, in his monograph of the
family. The specific characters, as contrasted with
those of the Solanders Geringore, consist in the
whiter colour of the bill, the greater proportion of
yellow upon the head and cheeks, and the spots of
that colour upon the lesser wing-coverts, with some
deviation in the colour and markings of the lateral
tail-feathers. It is also somewhat inferior in size ; in
other respects the resemblance is remarkably close ,
but as specific distinction is well known to exist in
other instances where the characters are not more
prominently marked, we are justified in considering

CALYPTORYNCHI75 STELLATFS.

Stellated l>erm<^ore.
Native of Austi ;t!i;i

STELLATED GERINGORE. 155

it as a separate species, and it ought to be retained
as such, unless extended observation and well authen-
ticated facts prove it a mere variety, or some parti-
cular state of plumage, of another species, arising
from age or sex. In it the typical form of the bill
is prominently marked, the outline or perspective
contour forming nearly a semicircle, the depth at the
base, as may be seen in the figure, is very great, and
considerably exceeding the length, measured from
the rictus or gape to the tip. The under mandible
is wider than the upper, and toothed, with the front
deeply emarginate. The upper is thick at the base,
compressed or cestiform towards the culmen, the tip
bending inwards, and not projecting far beyond the
under mandible* Its colour is greyish-white. The
forehead is scarcely crested, but the feathers upon
the vertex are a little elongated. The mass of the
plumage is of a greenish-black, deepest upon the
back and wings, where it assumes a purplish tinge.
The cheeks are yellow, with some markings of the
same colour on the sides of the head, and the lesser
wing-coverts are speckled with paler yellow. The
tail is of mean length, the two middle feathers en-
tirely black, the ,ateral with their bases and tips
black, the intermediate space being vermilion, with
from five to seven narrow bars of black, the interior
webs are margined with yellow. The shafts of the
tail feathers project in the form of a bristle beyond the
barbules, which appear worn down by attrition. It
is a native of Australia, but unfortunately little at-

J56 GENUS MICROGLOSSUS.

tention has hitherto been paid to the natural habits
of these curious birds. They are said to feed upon
bulbous roots, as well as other fruits, or rather the
seeds of fruits. They are seldom seen in flocks of
any magnitude, but keep more in family parties. In
disposition they are wild and fierce, and do not ex-
liihit that docility and aptness for imitation so con-
fcpicuous in other members of the family.

The subject of our next illustration, though bear-
ing in many respects a strong resemblance to the
preceding genus, is distinguished from it by the pe-
culiar form of its tongue, which is tubular and ex-
tensile, and by the form and contour of its bill. The
upper mandible is of great size, and considerably im-
pressed, the tomia or cutting edges being bidentate
or doubly sinuated. The under mandible is small
in proportion, with a single emargination. The or-
bits and cheeks are naked, and the head is adorned
with a long crest, generally pendent, but which can
be erected, and is composed of long narrow acuminate
feathers. The legs are naked a little way above the
tarsal joint, the tarsi themselves are short. The tail
is of mean length and even. It constitutes the type
of Geoffroy's genus Microglossus, which is retained
by Wagler in his Monographia Psittacorum. In
Kuhl's Conspectus, it is the representative of his- sec-
tion Probosciger, and he considers it as a form in-
termediate between the Maccaws and Cockatoo, but
our present ignorance of the natural habits of this

GENUS MICROGLOSSUS. 157

singular bird, renders it difficult to trace its true af-
finities, and we even feel doubtful whether the station
now assigned it, is that to which it will be entitled
upon a further investigation and more correct know-
ledge of its natural history. We propose for it the
name of the

GOLIAH ARATOO.

Microglossux aterrimus. — T\TAG:.£K.
PLATE XVI.

Microglossus aterrimus, Wagler, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand.

$c., p. 682, sp. 1, Vieill Gal. des Ow, tab. 50 Psittacus

gigas, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 107, sp. 75. — Psitt. aterrimus,

Gmel. i. p. 330; Kuhl, Consp. p. 93, sp. 165 Psitt. Go-

liah, Kuhl's Consp. Psitt. in Nov. Act.* £c., p. 92, sp. 166.
— Great Black Cockatoo, Edwards, pi. 316 — Black Coc-
katoo, Shaw, viii. 274, p. 71.

IN size it is one of the largest of the known Psit-
ticidae, being equal, if not superior to the Red and
Yellow Maccaw. The first description we have of
it is that of Edwards, though he mentions that a pre-
vious figure, apparently of the same species, had ap-
peared in a small book of prints of birds, drawn from
the life, and published by S. Vander Meulen at Am-
sterdam in 1707. Long, however, as it appears to
have been noticed, we are still ignorant of the essen-
tial parts of its history, viz. its habits and peculiar
economy, which the unusual form of the tongue and
other modifications of character would intimate to he
widely different from those of the genus last de-
scribed. It is a native of Papua, Waigeoa, New
Guinea, and other eastern Australian islands.

PLATE i(i.

Mir K or ;,() s s r s ATI-: Kimi rs.

Natu c oi PaM

GOLIAH ARATOO. 159

The bill, as represented in the figure, is very large.,
with the tip long and very acute, projecting far be-
yond the under, which is small and weak in compa-
rison. The orbits and cheeks are covered with a
naked red wrinkled skin, the crest is of a greyish
colour, long, composed of narrow feathers, and which
the bird can erect at pleasure. The whole of the
plumage is black, but glossed with a greenish-grey
tinge in the living bird, from the quantity of a white
powdering substance interspersed among the fea-
thers. In museums, the specimens are observed to
vary considerably in size ; and Ku.hl goes so far as
to consider the larger individuals as constituting a
species distinct from the lesser, characterising the
former by the title of Psiltacus Goliah, the smaller
by that of P. aterrimus. Further observation, how-
ever is required to verify the views of this ornitho-
logist, and for the present we adhere to Wagler's
opinion, who considered them as identical.

In this subfamily, or in close connection with it,
according to Wagler, is another remarkable form, to
which he #i/es the generic title of Dasyptilus> and
now illustrated by

160

PESQUET'S DASYPTILUS.

Dasyptilus Pequetii — WAGLBR.
PLATE XVII.

Dasyptilus Pequetii, Wagler Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. $c.
p. 502, 601 — Psittacus Pequetii, Less. Illus. ZooL pi. 1.

NAMED from the hairy or setaceous nature of the
feathers upon the head and neck, and the general ri-
gid nature of the whole plumage. The dominant
colour is black, in which respect it resembles the
Geringores, and the bird last described, but the form
of the bill (without adducing other characters) is
so different from that of the species alluded to, as
to make it very doubtful whether the station as-
signed to it is that to which it properly belongs.
For ourselves, we have had no opportunity of exa-
mining or comparing it with other species, as it is a
bird of great rarity, and but lately discovered, and we
are indebted to the liberality of the Noble President
of the Linn scan Society, for permission given to Mr
Lear to make the necessary drawing, from a speci-
men in the collection at Knowsly Park. It is a bird

DASYFTILUS PEQUETII.

iMsvptiliu;.
. ' Native (if Australia.

DASYPTILUS. 161

of considerable size, measuring upwards of twenty
inches in length. The bill is not so deep at the
base as in the great majority of the tribe, and its
length is greater than its height. The upper man-
dible is but moderately curved at the base, but bends
suddenly down towards the tip, like that of the
Raptorial Birds, and overhangs the under, which is
shorter, moderately convex and carinated, with the
tip narrowed and strongly emarginated on each side.
The nostrils are round, placed in the cere at the base
of the bill, the orbits and cheeks naked, thinly beset
with hairs, the head and upper neck is also nearly bare,
being thinly covered with setaceous feathers. The
tarsi and feet are strong, the former short and reti-
culated. The tail consists of ten rigid feathers, of
mean length and rounded. The wings are ample,
the first quill short, the third and fifth of equal length,
the fourth the longest in the wing. The upper
plumage is of a shining or velvet black, with the ex-
ception of the greater wing-coverts and upper tail-
coverts, which are crimson, and the secondary quills,
which have their outer webs of the same colour. The
lower neck and upper part of the breast is black, the
belly, vent, and thighs crimson-red.

The next subfamily or primary division of the
Psitticidae upon which we enter, is that of Loriana,
so named from the beautiful Scarlet-coloured Lories,
natives of continental India and its islands, and
which appear to constitute one of its typical forms

L

162 LORIANA.

It is the second aberrant group of the family, repre-
senting the tenuirostral tribe of the Insessores, and
consequently is analogous to the order Grallatores
in the class Aves ; and to the Glires among the
Mammalia. In conformity with these analogies, the
existence of which have been traced and followed out
in various departments of zoology, with such per-
spicuity and convincing force, by one of the first
naturalists of the age,* we find the habits as well as
the structure of the birds composing it, deviating in
a striking manner from those of the conterminous
groups, of course most conspicuously so, in such as
constitute the typical or representative forms. The
difference of structure to which we allude is in the
shape of the bill and tongue, the former member be-
ing weaker and slenderer in its proportions than in
the other Parrots, especially as regards the under
mandible, which is lengthened arid less convex in its
contour, with the tip contracted and narrow, and the
tomia or cutting edges straight and without emargina-
tion ; the inner surface of the overhanging point of
the upper mandible, which in the other groups is
rough and like a file, with lines crossing each other
at right angles, to give them a firm hold of nuts or
seeds, is smooth or nearly so, and the ridge opposing
the tip of the under mandible, which in the typical
Parrots is prominent and strongly marked, is but
slightly indicated or altogether wanting in the Lo-
riance, as are also the prominences of the palatial
* MrSwainson.

LORIANA. 163

bones, which assist so essentially in comminuting
the food of the other groups. Their tongue is not
so thick or fleshy, and the tip, instead of heing
smooth and soft, is rough, and in some furnished
with a pencil of setaceous papillae or hristles, si-
milar and analogous to the filamentous tongues of
the tenuirostral Melliphagidce. This structure, in
fact, is bestowed upon them for the same purpose,
and performs a similar office, viz. that of extracting
the nectar of flowers, and sucking the juices of ten-
der fruits, which it appeal's constitute the principal
support of the members of this beautiful division.
Of the various genera belonging to the subfamily,
besides the true Lories, we may enumerate all the
acknowledged members of the genus Trichoglossus
of Vigors and Horsf., which also seem to enter
among its typical forms, and included among these,
or at least in very close connexion, are the birds be-
longing to that group, named by Mr Vigors Broto-
geris, and typified by the Orange- winged Parrakeet
of authors. Another interesting form belonging to
it, and which appears to keep up a connexion with
the genus Palceornis of the Maccaw subfamily, is the
Charmosyna P&puensis of Wagler (Psittaccus Pa-
puensis, Auct.), whose tail, in shape, is nearly similar
to that of Palceornis Alexanalri, but the ground or pre-
vailing colour of its plumage is assimilated to that of
the true Lories, and is of a rich and vivid scarlet.
Besides the forms above enumerated, there are others
of a diminutive size, chiefly irjhahiting the islands of

164 iuORIANA.

the Pacific, which appear closely allied to tie Lo-
rianae, and which, in all probability, will be found to
enter that subfamily; most of these were included by
Kuhl, in his section or genus Psittacula> a group
apparently established to receive all the smaller Par-
rots, without regard to geographic distribution, or
the peculiar characters exhibited by the various indi-
viduals composing it, and consequently forming an
assemblage purely artificial. Want of materials to
institute the necessary analysis, as well as a defi-
ciency of information respecting the natural habits
of many of these birds, precludes us at present from
entering more fully into their true affinities, or speak-
ing with more confidence of the situations they re-
spectively hold ; but we have no hesitation in at once
admitting into the present division, that group
which embraces the Psittacus porpkyrio of Shaw ;
the Psittacula Kuhlii of Vigors, and several others,
of which Wagler has constituted his genus Cori-
philus.

We commence our illustrations of this subfamily
with examples of the genus Lorius, which may be
characterized as follows : — Bill moderate, compressed,
the inner side of the tip of the upper mandible
smooth ; the under mandible lengthened, conic,
with the tip narrow and entire. Tongue tubular,
silky. Tail of moderate length, rounded or gra-
duated, the feathers broad, with obtuse tips. Legs
stout. For the present, we arrange under this genus
all the Scarlet-coloured Lories, natives of continental

LORI A IV A. 165

India and its islands, but whose distribution does not
extend so far south as Australia. It is, however, pro-
bable that this group will require further division,
and that most of the genera indicated by Wagler in
his Monograph will hereafter be adopted. The
structure and comparative weakness of the bill of
these birds, plainly indicate that the nature of their
food must be different in quality from that of the
powerful billed Parrots, and accordingly we find, that
soft fruits, as well as the juices of flowers, constitute
their principal support. They are closely connected
in affinity with that group of which Psittacula Kuhlii,
Vigors, is a type, and with the Lorikeets or genus
Trichoglossus, Vigors, which occupy their place in
Australia and the islands of the Pacific. In the
breadth, and the rounded tips of their tail feathers,
may also be traced an approach to the broad-tails or
subfafaiily Platycercince, with which a connexion is
thus sustained. In disposition they are lively, but
mild and tractable, and when domesticated, fond of
being caressed. The call-note of many of the spe-
cies is similar in sound to the name they usually go
by, and some of them learn to speak with great dis-
tinctness. Our first figure represents the

166

PURPLE-CAPPED LORY.

Lorius domicellus.
PLATE XVIII.

Psittacus domicella, A uct. — Domicella atricapilla, Wagler^
Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. x. p. 567 — Peroquet lori a collier
jaune, Le Vaill. p. 95.— Second black-capped Lory, Edw.
pi. 171.

THIS beautiful bird is a native of the Moluccas,
and other Eastern Islands, from whence we occa-
sionally receive it, being held in high estimation, not
only on account of its elegant plumage, but for the
docility it evinces, and its distinct utterance of words
and sentences. It is also lively and active in its dis-
position, and fond of being caressed. In size it is
amongst the largest of the group, measuring upwards
of 11 inches in length. The general or ground co-
lour of the plumage is rich scarlet, this tint occupy-
ing all the lower parts of the body, with the excep-
tion of a collar of yellow upon the upper part of the
breast. The neck, back, upper tail-coverts, and ba-
sal part of the tail, are also of the same colour. The

PURPLE-CAPPED LORY. 16*3

crown of the head is hlackish-purple in front, passing
into violet-purple on the hinder part. The wings on
the upper surface are green, the flexure and margins
violet-blue, as are also the under wing-coverts. The
feathers of the thighs are azure-coloured exteriorly,
their basal parts being greenish. The bill is orange
yellow ; the under mandible conic, and narrow to-
wards the tip. In this species, the tongue exhibits
in an inferior degree the filamentous character so cha-
racteristic of the division, and it is probable that,
with three or four others, such as Lorius puniceus,
gurrulus, &c., it will be found necessary to separate
them from such as exhibit the tubular and papillary
structure of that member in greater extent and per- '
fection.

The next form we have to notice is one of great
interest, partaking of the essential characters of the
Lories, in the form and structure of its bill and
tongue, as well as in the prevailing tints of its plum-
age. At the same time, it shews a strong analogy
to the Ring- Parrakeets, or members of the genus
Palceornis, in the peculiar form of its tail, which
nearly resembles that of Palaeornis Alexandri. By
Wagler it is considered as genetically distinct from
the other Lories, as well as from the Trickoglossi,
or Lorikeets, and of it he institutes his genus
Charmosyna ; but as no other species has yet been
discovered, and the prolongation of the two mid-

168 CHARMOSYNA.

die tail-feathers appears to be the only character of
distinction, we have for the present retained it as an
aberrant form of the j^enus Loriw. It is the

C H ARM 0 S VX A I'A !' 1 r 1C XS IS
in Lory

1 1 11 a .

169

Charmosyna Papuensis. — WAQLKR.

TLATE XIX.

Charmosyna Papuensis, Wagler, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand.
&c., p. 555. — Psittacus Papuensis, Lath. Ind. Orn. vol. i.
p. 88, sp. 20. — Psitt. omnicolor, Lich. Catal. Her. Nat.
Rar., p. 5, No. 48— La Peruche Lory Papou, Le VailL

p. 9, t. 77.

To great elegance of form, this species unites a
plumage of the richest description, the ground-colour
of the body being of a deep but brilliant scarlet, re-
lieved in parts with deep azure-blue, yellow, and
green. The tail, or at least the two narrow central
feathers, greatly exceed the rest of the body in length,
as they measure upwards of 1 1 inches, while the for-
mer does not exceed 6 ; the lateral feathers are re-
gularly graduated, as in the other Lories, the long-
est measuring about 4 inches, or one-third the
length of the two intermediate plumes. The bill is
of an orange-red colour ; the upper mandible is long,
with the tip or hooked part projecting far beyond
the under one, which is conic and narrow. The
tongue is similar in structure and appearance to that

170 PAPUAN LORY.

of the other members of the group, the tip being
furnished with delicate papillae. Upon the vertex
arid nape are two irregular bars of azure, margined
with purplish- black. The lower parts of the tibia?,
lower back, and rump, are also of a deep azure.
Upon the sides of the breast and thighs are patches
of rich yellow. The wings are green ; the interior
webs of the quills blackish. The elongated tail-fea-
thers are pale grass-green, passing towards the tips into
yellow ; the lateral have their basal half dark green,
the remainder deep saffron yellow. This lovely spe-
cies is an inhabitant of Papua, and other parts of
New Guinea, and, as might be expected in countries
rarely visited by the naturalist, little is known of its
history or peculiar habits. Its remains, like those
of the birds of Paradise, frequently reach us in a mu<
tilated state, being deprived of the legs, and often
wanting the long feathers of the tail ; and from such
specimens have been derived the imperfect descrip-
tions of various authors.

We now enter upon an Australian group, which,
in that division of the globe, takes the place of the
Indian Lories. The members belonging to it, instead
of- having the ground or prevailing colour of the
plumage of a red or vermilion tint, have it green, of
brighter or deeper shades, according to the species,
variegated, however, in many of them, with masses
of the first-named colour. In this genus, the tail is
more elongated than in the true Lories, and regular-

TRICHOGLOSSUS. 171

ly graduated, with the tips of the feathers narrow ;
the wings are also narrow and pointed. It consti-
tutes Vigors's genus Trichoglossus, and is thus cha-
racterized:— Bill subelongate, compressed, weak, the
inferior mandible slightly convex, longer than high,
narrowed towards the tip, with the margins thin and
entire; inner surface of the projecting tip of the up-
per mandible smooth, or but slightly striated ; tongue
furnished near the tip with a pencil of bristly papillae ,
wings of moderate length, narrow, the first quill
longest, the second and third a trifle shorter, the
webs entire ; feet, the tarsi short, feathered below
the joint ; toes strong, with the soles broad and ex-
tended ; the claws greatly falcated, strong and sharp ;
tail graduated, with the feathers narrowing towards
the point. The members of this genus are birds of
elegant form, and some exhibit a great variety and
richness of plumage ; they are strictly arboreal and
scansorial, as indicated by the form and strength of
their feet and claws. In the quality of their food,
arid the structure of their tongue, they shew their
typical station in this representative section of the
Tenuirostral Tribe, their principal nutriment being
derived from the nectar of flowers ; they also eat or
suck the juices of the soft or exterior portion of va-
rious fruits, but do not attempt the kernels or actual
seeds, which constitute the general and favourite
pabulum of the rest of the Psittacidae. In their
contour, and the indications of a nuchal collar which
several of the species possess, Vve also trace a resem-

172 TRICHOGLOSSUS.

blance to the Parrakeets, or genus Palseornis, Vigors •
and this analogy we might expect to find, if, as we
suppose, the Parrakeets in their own circle consti-
tute the Tenui rostral type. In the present genus,
we are also induced to retain the Orange-winged
Parrot of authors (Psittacus pyrrhopterus), for which
bird Mr Vigors instituted the genus Brotogeris, as
we cannot observe any character of sufficient import-
ance to warrant a generic separation, the only dif-
ference seeming to be a slight elongation of the tip
of the upper mandible; but this is rendered less
abrupt by the intervention of another species, the
Trichoglossus palmarum, in which it is of a size in-
termediate between that of Trich* chlorolepidotus, T.
Swainsonii, &c., and that of Trick, pyrrhopterus.
The first example we give of this genus is the

TBJCHOfrLOSSUS I
Blue Id3

v.,-. ,, ., ~P v..,,. ;

BLUE-BELLIED LOKIKEET.

Trichoglossus Swainsonii. — JARDINE and SBLBV.
PLATE XX.

Trichoglossus haematodus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans.
voL xv. p. 289— Trichoglossus multicolor, Wagler^

Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. &c., p. 553 La Peruche a

tete bleu, Male, UVaill. His. des Per. i. pi. 24 Pe-
ruche des Moluques,.Bfc/: PL Enl No. 743 —Blue-bellied

Parakeet, Brown,, III. of Zool. pi. 7 ; Illus. Orn. pi. 3

Blue-bellied Parrot, White, Voy. N. S. W., plate at
p. 140.

THIS beautiful species is a native of New Hol-
land, where it is found in large flocks, wherever the
various species of Eucalypti abound, the flowers of
those trees affording an abundant supply of food to
this as well as to other species of the Nectivorous
PaiTots. According to the observations of Mr Ca-
ley, as quoted by Messrs Vigors and Horsfield in
their description of the Australian birds in the col-
lection of the Linnsean Society, " Flocks of these
birds may be seen in the eucalypti-trees, when in
flower, in different parts of the country, but in the
-reatest number near their breeding places." They
do not, foe adds., eat any kind of grain, even in a do-

174 BIA,^-BELLIED LORIKEET.

mesticated state; a fact curiously illustrative of their
peculiar habits, and the situation they hold in the
family of the Psittacidee. It appears that they sel-
dom live long in confinement, and that when caged
they are very subject to fits. This in all probabili-
ty arises from a deficiency of their natural food ; arid
the instinctive feeling or appetite for its favourite
diet is strongly exemplified in the fact; that one kept
by Mr Caley being shewn a figure of a coloured
plant, used to put its tongue to the flowers, as if
with the intent of sucking them, and this it even did
when shewn a figured piece of cotton furniture. By
the natives it is called War-rin ; the settlers call it
by the name of the Blue Mountain Parrot, though
the term seems to be misapplied, as it is a frequenter
of the plains, and not of the hilly districts. Its flesh
is excellent, and highly esteemed. This bird was
confounded with two other species, viz. the Psitt.
hcematodus of Linnaeus, and the Psitt. amboinensis
varia of Brisson. The subject, however, has been
thoroughly investigated by Mr Swainson, and the
result, of that investigation is given in the " Illustra-
tions of Ornithology,*"" where it is clearly shewn to
be a species distinct from the other two, and as such
it received the name we now attach to it, which we
think it proper to notice, as it has since been desig-
nated by Wagler, in his Monograph of the Parrots,
as the Trichoglossus multicolor,

o

* Illustrations of Ornithology by Sir William Jarchne,
Bart, and P. J. Selby, v. 2. part's, pi. 1 12.

BLUE-BELLIED LORIKEET. 175

Mr Lear's beautiful and accurate figure renders
it almost unnecessary to give a description of the
plumage; but as the bird has so frequently been con-
founded with two other species, it may perhaps be
satisfactory to some of our readers to give it in de-
tail. Length about 13 inches, of the tail alone 6
inches ; bill, in the dead bird, pale saffron yellow, in
the living-, inclining to orange ; head and throat of
a fine bluish-purple, the feathers rigid and subulate,
upon the lower part of the throat they are more in-
clined to lavender purple, and lose the rigid and su-
bulate character ; nuchal collar yellowish or vivid silken
green ; lower neck and breast bright vermilion-red,
passing on the sides of the breast into rich king's yel-
low; middle of abdomen of a deep imperial purple,
the feathers towards the sides vermilion, tipped with
vivid green ; hypochondria green, the basal part of
the feathers varied with vermilion and yellow; tibial
feathers vermilion-red ; under tail-coverts, with the
base of the feathers, red, the middle part yellow, the
tips green ; under wing-coverts rich vermilion-red ;
margin of the wings and all the upper plumage bright
grass-green ; the feathers upon the lower part of the
back of the neck with their bases vermilion, margin-
ed with yellow ; tail with the four middle feathers
entirely green, the remainder of the lateral feathers
with part of the inner web rich yellow, increasing in
extent to the outermost, where the whole of the web,
with the exception of a small spot at the tip, is of
that colour • quills with the inner webs dusky, and

176 BLUE-BELLIED LORIKEET.

each with a large oval central spot of king's yellow,
forming a broad fascia on the under side of the wings ;
legs and toes grey, the lateral membranes broad ; the
claws strong and greatly hooked.

The next figure represents another beautiful species
of this group : it is the

•

177

VARIED LORIKEET.

Trichofflossus versicolor.

PLATE XXI.
Trichogiossus versicolor, Lear's Parrots.

NEARLY allied to the Trick. Swainsonii, in form
and general aspect, another lovely species has lately
been discovered in New Holland, which has received
",he appropriate specific name of versicolor , the co-
lours of which the plumage is composed being great-
ly varied, and presenting to the eye an assemblage
and contrast of brilliant tints, as exhibited in the ac
companying engraving, and in still greater perfectiot
in the full-sized figure contained in Mr Lear's splen-
did work on the Psittacidse. It appears to possess
all the typical characters of the group ; but we have
no information respecting its peculiar habits in its
wild or natural state.

From species possessing a richly- varied plumage,
we now pass to others, where it is plainer, and of a
more uniform tint, but which otherwise exhibit all
the essential characters of the genus. In dimensions

178 VARIED LORIKEET.

also they are generally interior, and one of them, the
Trich. pusillus, ranks among the pigmies of the
Psittacean family. The species selected for repre-
sentation is the

TK !(!!()(. LOSS TS PYHRHOPTERUS

[v,M ivc of the S;i luds

.....
: II SIT Y

J

ORANGE- WINGED LORIKEET.

Trichoglossus pyrrhopterus — WAGLE R.

PLATE XXII.

Brotogeris pyrrhopterus, Vig. Zoo!. Journ. ii. p. 400. —
Psittacus pyrrhopterus, Lath. Ind. Orn. Sup. p. 22, No. 7;
Vig. in Zoo/. Journ. i. 535. — Orange-winged Parrakeet,
Lath. Syn. Sup. ii. p. 90, No. 16.

FROM this bird, which Mr Vigors described in
the first volume of the Zoological Journal, under
Latham's title of the Orange-winged Parrakeet, he
afterwards formed his genus Brotogeris ; but, as we
have previously observed, the characters upon which
it is instituted seem to vary so little from those of
Trichoglossus, that we have followed the example of
Wagler, and retained it in the latter genus, in close
association, however, with Trichoglossus palmarum,
another Pacific species, which, as a slight 'y aberrant
form, seems gradually to lead to other and stronger
billed groups of the Psittacidae. It is a native of
the Sandwich Islands, and not of the Brazils, as at
first supposed by Dr Latham ; and the two indivi-
duals which we well recollect seeing, when in Mr
Vigors's possession, were brought to England in the

180 ORANGE- WINGED LORIKEET.

same vessel which conveyed hither the late unfortu-
nate King and Queen of these Islands. As any in-
formation tending to elucidate the hahits and man-
ners of species cannot fail to be equally interesting
to the naturalist and the general reader, we make no
apology for quoting largely from the account given
by Mr Vigors of these two lovely birds. " In their
manners," he observes, " they are peculiarly interest-
ing. Strongly attached to each other, like the indi-
viduals of the small species, so well known in our
collections, and which we familiarly style Love Birds,
they assert an equal claim to that title, if it is to be
considered the reward, or the distinctive sign of af-
fection. They will not admit of being separated
even for a moment; and, whether in their cage or at
liberty, every act and every movement of one has a
reference to the acts and movements of the other.
They are lively, active, and familiar, distinguishing
and following those who attend to them, with per-
fect confidence, but always in concert" Their
movements, he adds, are less constrained than those
of Parrots in general, approaching, both on the
ground and the wing, to the quick pace and short
and rapid flight of the more typical perchers. They
have apparently less powers of voice than the greater
part of the family, uttering only a sort of chirrup
like that of the sparrow ; this is shrill, it must be
confessed, at times when rivalship or any particular
incitement induces them to exert it to the utmost ;
but at other times it is far from unpleasing, more

ORANGE-WINGED LORIKEET. 181

especially when they employ it, as is their custom,
either in welcoming the approach of the morning, or
acknowledging the attentions of a favourite." In size
it is inferior to the species already described, mea-
suring not more than 7^ inches in length. The bih
is pale, slightly tinged with pink ; the upper man-
dible with the tip attenuated and long ; the tomia
slightly sinuated. The crown of the head and paro-
tic region is of a delicate greenish-blue ; the sides
Df the neck and throat, and indistinct nuchal collar,
ire greyish-white ; the rest of the body, with the ex-
ception of the under wing-coverts, which are of a
-ich orpiment-orange colour, is green, palest upon
the flanks, thighs, and the margins of the tail-feathers.
The feet are of a pale flesh-colour

182

Nearly allied to the genera Trichoglossus and Lo-
rius, in the form of the bill, the tongue, and feet,
is another beautiful group inhabiting the islands of
Australia, and characterized by Wagler, in his mo-
nograph of the family, under the title of Coriphilus.
They feed upon the softer fruits, particularly that of
the Musa Paradisiaca, and live amid the foliage
of the highest palm-trees. The structure of the
tongue in these birds is curious, according to the na-
turalists who accompanied Duperney in his " Voy-
age autoitr du Monde:" it is tipped
by a kind of crown, formed by a
number of long stiff filaments, re-
gularly placed, and which M. de
Blainville considers as the nervous
elongations or papillae of the lingual
or gustatory branch, enormously developed. Their
voice is weak and sibilous ; and, when alarmed or
irritated, they erect the feathers of the hind-head,
which are narrow and elongated. The sexes are re-
markable for their affection to each other, and direct
all their movements in concert. The characters of
the genus are : — Bill small, the upper mandible with-
out a distinct tooth, the cere large and prominent,
the under mandible weak, slightly convex. Nostrils
open, round, in the basal cere. Tongue papillose
near the tip. Head cre8ted. Wings long- and

CORIPHILUS. 1 83

pointed. Tail of moderate length, broad, rounded
at the tip. Feet strong. Claws falcate. This
.group is illustrated by

.84

KUHL'S COR1PHILUS.

Coriphilus Kuhlii — WAGLER.
PLATE XXIII.

Coriphilus Kuhlii, Man. Psitt. in Abhand. $c. p. 494, and
566 — Psittacula Kuhlii, Vig. in Zool. Journ. v. 1. p. 412.
pi. 16. — Lear's Parrots.

THIS beautiful little bird was first described and
figured by Mr Vigors in the Zoological Journal,
from one of several specimens received by Mr Cross,
formerly of Exeter Change, and now proprietor of
the Surrey Zoological Gardens, from an island in the
vicinity of Otaheite. In beauty of plumage, and ele-
gance of aspect, it yields to few of the race ; but it
appears to be of a wild and timorous disposition, at
least in regard to strangers, as Mr Vigors states that
he was unable to enter into its characters to the ex-
tent he wished, from its impatience of observation
and a near approach. Its voice is weak and sibi-
lous, similar to the other species of this group, which
contains, in addition to the present, the Cor. sapphiri-
nus, Wag. (Psittacus Taitanus, Auct.), Cor. euclorus,
Wag. (Psitt. fringillaceus, Lath., Kuhl, &c.), and the
Cor. solitarius, Wacr. (Psitt. Phigy, Bechst., Kuhl,

I.Lcarddt

Xubl'f, Coriphihi-j.

•••

KUHI/S CORIPHILUS. 185

&c.) The bill is small and short, of a red colour.
The i rides are composed of three circles, the exte-
rior being red, the second grey, and the third or
inner yellow. The forehead and crown are of a
lively green, the double occipital crest is of a rich
violet-purple, and composed of long narrow feathers,
which it can erect at pleasure, but most frequently
when irritated or alarmed. The face, fore-neck,
breast, and abdomen, are blood-red, the thighs of a
deep purplish -red, the vent and upper tail- coverts
are sulphur-yellow. The hind-neck, the back and
wings are of a lively yellowish-green. The tail,
which is pretty long and broad, is red, tinged with
purple, the tips of the feathers green. The legs
and toes are red, the latter short and strong; the
claws are black and hooked.

Another very beautiful and interesting bird, which
appears to belong to this little group, is the Psitt.
Taiterisis, Gmel. : — Blue, but having the throat, fore
part of the, neck, and cheeks, white. It frequents
the very summits of the cocoa-trees, examining their
flowers at the moment of bursting, for the sweet li-
quid which is there abundant.

Apparently in near connection with Wagler's ge-
nus Coriphilus, in the weak structure of the bill,
and in the length and shape of the wings, is another
group of diminutive Parrots, inhabiting the Indian
and Australian islands, for which we adopt the title
of Psittaculus, and which, we believe, will enter

186

PSITTACULUS.

into the present subfamily, though we cannot speak
positively as to the structure of their tongue, or
whether it is furnished with papillae similar to the
members of the other nectivorous groups. Our fi-
gure represents what we suppose to be the young
Male of the

LATE 24.

I'SlTTACn.rS GAL CVV LI'S-

s.ipplun1 Q owaeeLPsittacule.

X;'twr 01 the Tiifllan Islands.

187

,,<^!1P%

{ 1 \IVEESITY

SAPPHIRE-CROWNED PSITTACULE.

Psittaculus galgulus.-< >WAGLER.
PLATE XXIV.

Psittaculus vernalis, Swains. Id Series Illust. (young male).
— Psittacus galgulus, Lath. Ind. Orn. v. i. p. 130, sp. 148.
(exclu. var. B.)— Psitt. vernalis, Id. i. 130, sp. 147 __
Petite Perruche de Perou, PI. Enl. 190. f. 2.— Sapphire-
crowned Paraket, Edwards, pi. 293. f. 2 — Lath. Syn.
i. 312, sp, 117 — Vernal Parrakeet, Lath. Syn.^-Swains.
2d Series Illust.

MR SWAINSON, in the Second Series of his beau-
tiful Illustrations, has figured and described this
bird nearly in the same state it is represented upon
oar plate, under the title of Psittaculus vernalis,
supposing it a distinct species, or at least not aware
that it was the young or immature male of the
Psittacus galgulus of authors. This, at least, is
the opinion of Wagler, who, in his " Monographia
Psittacorum" has described it as such, and brought
the synonymes of these two supposed species toge-
ther. As to the correctness of his views in so doing,
we are bound, in the first instance, to consider them
as being so, presuming that the evidence upon which
he established their identity was satisfactory and con-

188 SAPPHIRE-CROWNED PSITTACULE.

elusive ; for ourselves, we have not had an opportu
nity of tracing these birds through their different
stages, but we know, that, in size, and in a great
measure in colour, they nearly agree, and Mr Swain-
son himself has noticed in his description the resem -
blance of the vernalis to the galgulus, in the pecu-
liar colour of the under surface of the wings, with-
out, however, any remarks or conjecture as to the
probability of their belonging to the same species,
under different states of plumage or age. In re-
taining the generic title of Psittaculus for this and
some other diminutive forms belonging to the In-
dian islands and those of Australia, we do not in-
clude all the species embraced by Kuhl's section of
that name, or even the genus of Wagler, which,
though more restricted, admits of birds marked by
strong differential characters, and widely separated,
so far as regards their geographical distribution. In
the state we have figured it, the upper parts are
of a fine lively green, with the exception of the
rump and upper tail-coverts, which are crimson-red,
and it shews but a slight indication of the fine blue,
which marks the crown of the adult. In the ma-
ture state, also, the throat, instead of being orange-
coloured, is of a fine red, and a crescent of orange-
yellow encircles the lower part of the hind neck.
The bill in the adult is reddish-black ; in the young
and female it is red*

189

WE now arrive at the fifth or fissirostral division
of the Psittacidce, which, hy Mr Swainson, has been
designated hy the name of Platycercina (Broad-tail),
the members of the genus Platycercus of Vigors
and Horsfield being considered as its typical repre-
sentatives. Of the other groups which belong to
this section, we only venture to speak with diffi-
dence, not having had an opportunity, as well from
want of time as of materials, to make that strict
analysis of the species which is required to trace out
with certainty the true affinities, and exact station
of each. We have sufficient data, however, to be-
lieve, that the ground Parrakeets (gen. Pezoporus,
Illig.), the beautiful miniature Maccaw-looking spe-
cies belonging to the genus Nanodes, Vigors, the
two species composing Wagler's genus Nymphicus,
represented by the Psitt. sisetis and Psitt. Nova
Hollandice of authors, arid some other forms, among
which, perhaps, ,the PsittacuS Platurus of Tem-
minck's " Planches Colories" may be included, en-
.ter into it. Those interesting species which inhabit
Madagascar, and known by the name of Vaeas, viz.
Psitt. niger and Psitt. mascarinus, Linn., forming
Wagler's genus Coracopsis, also shew a decided affi-
nity in form and habit to the true Platycerci, and
there is little doubt belong to the division. To the
genus Palaornis, Vigors, which we have placed
among the Macrocercince, or Maccaw section, an

190 PLATVOERCINjE.

approach is shewn in several species. Thus, it is
strongly indicated by the resemblance the Palceor,
Barrabandi, an Australian species, which stands
upon the confines of the group, bears to some of the
less typical Broad-tails, in which that member in
part loses its broad and depressed form. It is also
visible in the wings and tail of that lovely species,
the Nanodes discolor, in which the second, third, and
fourth quills lose the distinct emargination of the outer
web, and the two middle tail-feathers assume, in a
great measure, the shape of those peculiar to the Ring-
Parrakeets. The connection of the present with the
preceding subfamily is supported by some of the Lories,
in which the bill is comparatively strong, and the tongue
loses in part its peculiar structure,- and its approach
to the short and even -tailed Parrots is shewn in the
wide and slightly graduated tail of Platycercus sea-
pulatus, as well as in the Madagascar species Psitt.
nigcr and mascarinus. The members of this fa-
mily are distinguished from the rest of the Psitta-
cidce, by their slender and elevated tarsi, and the
Jess falcated form of their claws. Their wings also
are shorter, and rounded, the first quill-feather be-
ing inferior to some of the succeeding ones. In
consequence of this formation, their habits are less
strictly scansorial than those of the typical Parrots;
but the deficiency is amply compensated by the ease
and agility with which they move upon the ground,
where their actions partake in a great measure of
xhat freedom which distinguishes so many of the

PLATYCERCIN^E. 1 9 1

scansorial order, but which is almost denied to the
typical Parrots, whose movements upon a plain sur-
face are to a great degree awkward, and constrained.
This formation is carried to the greatest extent in
the genus Pezoporus, Illiger (Ground Parrot), in
which the tarsi and toes are long and slender, and
the claws nearly straight, indicating those terrestrial
habits from which it has derived its name. The
Platycercince are birds of elegant and graceful form,
and their carriage and actions are in accordance with
it, as they display an activity and liveliness of mo
tion far superior to that of the true scansorial spe-
cies, and more in character with that of other birds.
In richness and diversity of plumage, also, they yield
to none of the tribe, whether we admire it in the
varied hues of tne genus Platycercus, or in those
smaller species belonging to the genus Nanodes,
Vigors, which have aptly been termed miniature
Maccaws. Most of the members of this division
also shew a decrease in the power of flight, their
wings being short and rounded, as indicated by the
relative length of the quill-feathers. Not having a
figure illustrative of the Madagascar species, which
must be considered an interesting form in this divi
siori, we commence with the genus Platycercus, Vi-
gors and Horsfield. The characters are: — Bill
rather short, deeper than long, the upper mandible
with the culmen indistinct, broad and rounded,
bulging on the sides, the tomia with a strong emar-
gination or tooth, the under mandible short, very

192 GENUS PLATVCEKCUS.

convex, deeply emarginate, with the tip broad, short,
and quadrate. Palatial cutters large, and fully de-
veloped. Tongue simple, smooth. Wings of mean
length, rounded, the first quill considerably shorter
than the second and third, which are the longest,
and nearly equal, the second, third, fourth, and fifth
with their external webs abruptly emarginated a little
behind the middle. Tail broad • and depressed,
rounded or subgraduate, the feathers with their tips
rounded. Feet with the tarsi elevated and slender.
Toes slender, claws rather long and slightly falcated.
The species belonging to this beautiful genus are
already very numerous, and additions are constantly
being made to it, as our knowledge of New Holland
is extended, of which interesting country the ma-
jority of those already discovered are natives. They
are of active habits, and are usually seen in large
flocks, except during the period of reproduction.
They feed upon seeds, particularly upon the grasses
and Cerealea, and frequently do much damage in re-
cent settlements to the ripening as well as to the
new sown maize and wheat. The first species we
have to notice is considered by Mr Vigors as the
type of the genus : it is the

PI.ATYC :-:scrs

I Teal

193

PENNANTIAN BROAD-TAIL.

Platycercus Pennantii VIG. & HORSJ-.

PLATE XXV.

Platycercus Pennantii, Vig. $ Horsf. Linn. Trans, v. 15.
p. 250 — Wagler, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. $c. p. 535, pi. 17

— Psitt. Pennantii, Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 90, No. 26 Psitt.

gloriosus, Shaw's Nat. Mus. pi. 53. — Psitt. elegans, Kuhl^
Nov. Acta, <Jc., v. 10. p. 55, pi. 89 — Perruche a large
queue, Le Vaill. Hist, des Psitt. pi. 79.— Pennantian Par-
rot, Phill Bot. Bay, pi. p. 154.— Whitens Journ. pi. in
p. 174.— Lath. Gen. Hist. 11. p. 131, No. 34.

THE rich crimson- red which forms the ground
colour of this beautiful species, recals to mind the
Scarlet Lories, and it is no doubt from this general
resemblance the name of Lory has been given to it
by the settlers in New Holland, of which country
it is a native. It appears to be numerous and wide-
ly dispersed, congregating in large flocks, and fre-
quently doing considerable damage to the wheat and
Indian corn — the Cerealea constituting a favourite
food with several species of this genus. On this
account it is persecuted by the farmer, who endea-
vours to reduce their numbers by the gun, as well as
by traps, in which they are readily taken. The ex-

194 PENNANTIAN BROAD-TAIL.

pense and trouble incurred in their capture is, how-
ever, in part repaid, not only by a saving of their
crops, but by the acquisition of a wholesome addi-
tion to the table, as this as well as other species are
reported to he of excellent and delicate flavour. Ac-
cording to Mr Caley, whose account of this bird we
quote from the Linnaean Transactions, " it is called
by the natives Dulang and Julang. Like the King's
Parrot (Plat, scapulatus), it is found in large flocks
among the ripe Indian corn, both species intermixed.
It varies much in colour, but as the greater part of
the flock is of the colour of the female, it may also
be taken for granted that they are young birds. The
natives tell me it makes its nest chiefly in the Pep-
permint-tree (Eucalyptus piperita), always in the
body, but never in the boughs. Sometimes it en-
larges the hole through which it enters. Year after
year the same place is frequented for the purposes
of incubation. It makes no nest, but from the de-
cayed parts of the tree. It has four young ones.
The eggs are white. I have met with this bird in
November in the most mountainous parts of the coun-
try; but I apprehend it leaves these parts in the
winter."

In its motions it exhibits great activity and live-
liness, and it walks upon the ground with facility,
and without any of that awkward pait, so conspicu-
ous in the typical Parrots. It is fiequently kept in
a tame or caged state, chiefly for the beauty of its
piuraage and handsome carriage/ as few or none of

PENNANTIAN BROAD-TAIL. 195

this division possess the imitative powers exhibited
by members of other genera. The beautiful and
characteristic figure from Mr Lear's drawing, au(J
the accurate manner in which the engraving is o
loured, renders it unnecessary to give a detailed de-
scription of the plumage of the adult. The young
bird differs in having the under parts of an obscure
green, sometimes varied with ppots of red ; the azure
patch upon the cheeks is also of a pale colour. The
mantle dusky, each feather margined with pale red,
and the two middle tail feathers green. The dimen-
sions are as follows : — Total length about 15^ inches,
length of the tail 8 inches, of the tarsi f ths of an
inch, of the upper mandible, from the gape to the
tip, f ths of an inch, height at base nearly 1 inch.

Our next plate represents another beautiful spe-
cies of the same genus : it is the

196

PALE-HEADED BROADTAIL.

Platycercus palliceps.

PLATE XXVI.
Platycercus palliceps, Lear's Parrots.

THIS species, in form and habit, as well as the ge-
neral disposition of its colours, is nearly allied to the
Plat, eximius, Vig. (Nonpareil Parrot of Latham's
Gen. Hist.), for, with the exception of the head,
breast, and belly, the rest of the plumage is almost
precisely the same. Like the majority of the mem-
bers of this now extensive genus, it is a native of
New Holland.

We regret that our limits will not admit of our
giving more examples of these lovely birds, particu-
larly of such as, by a slight deviation from the typi-
cal form, lead to other genera, or serve to connect
the present subfamily with the conterminous divi-
sions, such are some of the species inhabiting the
Pacific Islands, in which the tail feathers are more
attenuated towards the tip ; such also the Plat, sea-
y Vig. (King'e or Tabuan Broad -Tail), in

fLATYCERC cs I'Ai.i.ic EPS

NANODES. 197

which the bill is less bulging, the tail very broad,
and not so cuneiform as in the other species, and such
would appear to be the New Guinea Broad-Tail
(Plat. Novce Guinea, Wagler), in which the ophthal-
mic region is naked, a character that may perhaps
imply the propriety of further generic division.

From the typical genus Platycercus, we now pass on
to a group composed of birds of smaller dimensions,
but eminent for their delicate form and pleasing
plumage, and which have not inaptly been termed
miniature analogues of the splendid Maccaws. In
this lovely genus, the tail, in some species, as Nano-
des venustus, and Nan. pulchellus, Vigors and Hors-
field, retains to a considerable extent the breadth and
depression of the Broadtails. In the Nanodes dis-
color. Vigors and Horsfield, as previously remarked,
it in a great measure loses that character, and as-
sumes the form, exhibited by the Ring-Parakeets or
genus Palceornis, Vigors, the legs and feet as in
Platycercus, are also slender and lengthened, and
the claws but ^lightly hooked. This group forms
the genus Nanodes of Vigors and Horsfield, or that
of Euphemia, Wagler, distinguished by the follow-
ing characters : — Bill short, higher than long, the
upper mandible with the culmen rounded, arid the
tomia in the typical species without a distinct tooth
or emargination, under mandible very short, inclining
inwards, emarginate, with the apex broad, quadrate,
and slightly sinaatad. Palatial catting membranes

98 NANODES.

large. Nostrils round, lateral, placed In the slightly
raised cere at the hase of the bill. Wings of mean
length, subacuminate, the first quill a little shorter
than the second and third, which are the longest and
nearly equal, second, third, and fourth quills with
their exterior webs slightly emarginate near the
middle. Tail graduated, cuneiform, slightly de-
pressed, the feathers gradually narrowing towards
the tip. . Feet slender, the tarsi and toes elongated ;
claws slightly hooked.

The first specimen of this genus is the

XAXODES VENUS TUS

Blue-Banded Nan odes.
Native of NewHolland.

199

BLUE-BANDED NANODES.

Nanodes venustus. — VIG. et HORSF.

PLATE XX VII.

Nanodes venustus, Vig. et Horsf. Linn. Trans, b. 15, p. 278.
— Euphemia chrysostoma, Wag. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand.
$c., p. 492 and 544, No. 2 — Psitt. chrysostomos, Kuhl,
Conspec. Psitt. in Nova Acta, <J-c., p. 50, No. 78. — Psitt.
venustus, Temminck in Trans. Linn. Soc. b. 13, p. 121. —
Blue-banded Parrakeet, Latham's Gen. Hist. ii. p. 188,
No. 109.

THIS pretty species, whose extreme length is
about nine inches and a-half, of which the tail alone
measures four, is a native of New Holland and Van
Diemen's Land, in which island it is called the Ho-
bart Ground Parrot, an adjective epithet, which evi-
dently points to its terrestrial habits, and these are
further indicated by its lengthened tarsi and toes,
which in this and Nanodes pulchellus, a nearly al-
lied and still more beautiful species, closely resemble
those members, as exhibited in the genus Pezoporus,
Jllig., or Proper Ground Parrot. It feeds upon the
seeds of various grasses, and is generally seen upon
the ground. As a site for its nest, it selects a hole
or excavation in the stump of an Eucalyptus or gum

200 BLUE-BANDED NANODES.

tree, and lays its eggs, to the number of seven or
eight, upon the decayed particles of wood at the
bottom of the hole, without the addition of any other
materials. The eggs are white and immaculate.
The bill is grey, the under mandible paler than the
upper. The frontal band, which crosses from eye
to eye, is narrow and of a deep azure-blue, the space
between the bill and eyes gamboge-yellow. The
crown of the head is green, deeply tinged with sul-
phur-yellow, the cheeks, throat, and the upper part
of the breast are of a delicate siskin-green, passing1
gradually into a rich yellow, the head, neck, back,
upper tail-coverts and scapulars are of a pale olive-
green, with a greyish tinge, the lesser and greater
wing-coverts are deep glossy azure-blue. The quills
black, with their outer webs margined with azure-
blue. The two middle tail feathers are pale azure,
tinged with grey, the lateral with their bases azure-
blue, their tips gamboge-yellow, passing gradually in-
to primrose-yellow, the feet and claws are grey.

Our next figure represents another species of this
group : it is the

NANODES UNDTTLATTTS.

ITll(luUmj(l N:;1

201

UNDULATED NANODES.

Nanodes undulatus — VIG. et HORSP.
PLATE XXVIII.

Nanodes undulatus., Vip. et Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. b. XT.
p. 277.— Psittacus undulatus, Shaw's Nat. Mis. pi. 673.
— Kuhl, Nov. Acta, <J-c., p. 49, No. 76. — Euphemia undti-
lata, Wagle*-, Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. £e., p. 492 and
545.

THIS little species, which scarcely exceeds seven
inches in length, approaches still closer than its con-
geners in colour and appearance to the Ground Par-
rot, and brings the genus Pezoporus, Illig. into im-
mediate connexion, with that to which it belongs.
Its habits and mode of life are supposed to resemble
those of its congeners, but we unfortunately possess
too little information upon these interesting points,
the skins we receive from abroad being mostly col-
lected by persons who take no other interest in the
pursuit except the mere acquisition of the bird, are
rarely accompanied by any notes or observations il-
lustrative of the natural history of the species they
belong to. The head and nape are of a yellowish-
green, with very fine dark undulating lines ; upon
each cheek is a small patch of azure-blue, the upper

202 UNDULATED XAXODES.

parts of the body are of an oil -green, with darker
undulations, the lower parts are plain yellowish -green.
The two intermediate tail feathers are green at the
base, passing towards the tips into azure-blue, the
lateral feathers are green, with a broad yellow fascia
in the middle. The bill and legs are grey.

In near connection with the birds we have just
been describing, stands the genus Pezoporus, Illiger,
represented by the Pezoporus formosus, Illiger, the
Ground Parrot of Latham's General History. The
characters of distinction are drawn from the still
greater elongation of the tarsi and toes, and the
usually straight claws, indicating habits strictly terres-
trial, with trifling or greatly diminished powers of
prehension. The tail also is less depressed, and the
feathers are narrower and more pointed than in Na-
nodes venustus and pulchellus, with those slight
modifications of character it might perhaps with
equal propriety be considered a constituent or aber-
rant member of the genus to which they belong, pro-
bably its rasorial type. We retain it, however, in its
present station, until a stricter analysis of the family
has been instituted. It is represented by the next
figure under the title of the

„ p ^

ITT

V /->

203

^/FORNIA^

GROUND PARROT.

Pezoporus formosus. — ILLIGER.
PLATE XXIX.

Pezoporus formosus, Vig. et Iforsf. Trans- Linn. Soc. v. 15,
p. ?»5 — \Vayler. Mon. Psitt. in Abhand. ije., p. 2oO. —

Psitt. formosus, Lath. Ind. Ornith. i. p. 103, No. 60

Knhl. Consp. PQitt. Nov. Acta, $c., p. 43, No. 64.— I'sit-
tacus U-rrestris, Shawls Zoo/, of New Holland* pi. 3,—
Nat. Mine. 228 — Perruche Ingambe, Le Vaill. Nat. <lcs
Per. f»l. 32 — Grountl Parrot, Lath. Gen. Mist. li. p. 137,
No. 40.

THOUGH destitute of that diversity of brilliant co-
lours which distinguishes so many of the tribe, the
plumage of the Ground Parrot is handsome and
pleasing to the eye, the lively green which forms the
ground or prevailing tint being beautifully varied with
spots, and bars of black and yellow In size it ex-
ceeds the last described species, measuring rather
more than twelve inches in length, one half of which
is occupied by the tail, this is composed of feathers,
which taper rapidly towards their tips, which are
sharp and pointed, and have their exterior webs very
narrow, the two middle tail feathers are green, barred
with yellow, 'the lateral yellow, barred with blackish

204 GROUND -PARROT.

brown. The wings are rather short and rounded,
the first and fourth quills being equal, the second and
third the longest and equal. The inner webs of the
quills are blackish-brown, and have each a mesial
angular spot of yellow, forming an oblique fascia or
bar on the under side of the wings ; the exterior webs
are green, with an angular spot of yellow towards the
middle, upon all the quills, with the exception of the
two first. At the base of the upper mandible is a nar-
row band of reddish-orange. The bill is grey, the to-
mia of the upper mandible paler, and without emargi-
nation. The feet are yellowish-white, the tarsi nearly
an inch long, covered in front with hexagonal scales.
The toes slender and long, the claws nearly straight,
with pale tips.

The Ground Parrot is a native of Holland and
Van Diemen's Land, where it inhabits the scrubs or
ground partially covered with low underwood. It
is very rarely seen perched, and when flushed, Mr
Caley observes, takes a short flight, and then alights
among the bushes, but never upon them. Of its
mode of nidification, and other matters connected
with its history, we are unable to give any further
account.

The last group our limits permit us to mention,
from its characters, which in many respects approach
near to those of Pezoporus, seems naturally to be in-
cluded in this division. Its members are distinguished
by a crest, in one species consisting of two slender

GROUNP- PARROT. 205

feathers, in the other of six, and similar in form to
that of the Common Lapwing. The bill> in shape
and proportion, seems almost intermediate between
that of Platycercus and Pezoporus, the tarsi are ele-
vated, the toes slender, with claws slightly fal-
cate. Like most of the Platycercinse, they are much
upon the ground, where they move with freedom,
and feed upon grass-seeds, maize, and other corn.
In Wagler's Monographia Psittacorum, they form
his fourth genus Nymphicus, which title we adopt,
as having been imposed prior to that of Leptolophus,
by which it is characterized in Mr Swainson's Illus-
trations. Our figure represents the

RED-CHEEKED NYMPHTCUS.

Nymphicus Novte Hollandice. — WAGLER.
.PLATE XXX.

Nymphicus Novae Hollandiae, Wag. Mon.Psitt. inAbhand.,
<|c., p. 490 and 522 — Psitticus Novae Hollandiae, Latham^
Ind. Orn. i. 102, sp. 89. — Leptolophus auricomis, Swain-
s<w's2d Ser. Jllus — Crested Parakeet, Lath. Syn. i. p. 250,

51 Calopsitta Guy, Less. Ill Zool. vol. iii. 2 sp. pi. 112.

Female.

THOUGH clothed in plain and unassuming plumage,
as compared with many of its brilliant-coloured as-
sociates, the subject of our plate is not without its
attractions, its elegant crest contributing to increase
the beauty of its contour, which in other respects is
equal to that of any species we have previously de-
scribe/!. Its habits are said to resemble those of the
other Platycercinae, with which its structure also ac-
cords, the elongation of the tarsi and toes giving it
the same freedom of action upon the ground, where
it usually seeks and obtains its food. It does not
appear to be a numerous species, as few specimens
have yet found their way into our museums, and no
detailed account of its natural history have hitherto
been recorded. It is a native of New Holland, but

i'iiici's NOY.K noi.i,. \\ni.i-;

inland.

KED-CHEEKED NYMPHICUS. 207

of what particular district we are ignorant. It is
likely that this bird and its congeners will constitute
the rasorial type of this subfamily. In the lengthened
tail feathers of this genus an analogy or distant affi-
nity to the Ring Parrakeets, with which the illustra-
tions commenced, may be traceu,

189

f To be placed at the end of the PARROT Volume.)

BIOGRAPHICAL

MEMOIK OF DAUBENTON.

BY

f > r ^

BARON CUVIER. ITY

LOUIS-JEAN-MARIE DAUBENTON, Member of the Senate
and of the Institute, Professor of Natural History to
the Museum and the College of France, Member of the
Academies and Scientific Societies of Berlin, Peters-
burg, London, Florence, Lausanne, Philadelphia, &c.,
formerly Stipendiary Anatomist to the Academy of
Sciences, Curator and Demonstrator to the Cabinet of
Natural History, was born at Montbar, in the depart-
ment of Cote d'Or, on the 29th May, 1716, of Jean
Daubenton, notary in that place, and Marie Pichenot.

He was distinguished from his infancy for the gentle-
ness of his manners ; and he obtained from the Jesuits
of Dijon, where he first studied, all those little distinc-
tions so flattering to youth, without being always the
presages of more lasting success. These he remembered
with pleasure to the close of his life, and always pre-
served the written testimonials.

190 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

After having completed, under the Dominicans of that
same town, what was then called a course of philosophy,
his parents, who intended him for the church, and made
him assume the ecclesiastical dress at twelve years of
age, sent him to Paris to be initiated in theology ; but,
inspired perhaps by a presentiment of what he would
one day become, young Daubenton secretly devoted
himself to the study of medicine. At the schools of the
faculty he attended the prelections of Baron, Martineux,
and Col de Villars ; and, in the same Jardin des Plantes
which he was afterwards so largely to benefit, those of
Winslow, Hunauld, and Antoine de Jussieu. The death
of his father, which happened in 1736, having left him
at liberty to follow the bent of his inclinations, he took
his degrees at Rheims in 1740 and 1741, and then re-
turned to his native place, where he limited his ambi-
tion to the exercise of his profession. But destiny re-
served him for a more brilliant theatre.

The little town where he first saw the light, had
likewise produced an individual of independent fortune,
whose bodily and mental qualifications, and ardent
taste for pleasures, seemed to destine him for any other
career than that of the sciences, yet who found himself
attracted to them by an irresistible inclination, which
is almost a certain indication of extraordinary talents.

Buffon (for it was that individual), for a long time
uncertain to what object he should apply his genius,
tried, in turns, geometry, physics, and agriculture. At
last, Dufay, his friend, who was called upon, during his

MEMOIR OP DAUBENTON. 191

brief administration, to rescue the Jardin des Piantes
from the state of disorder into which it had been allow-
ed to fall by the carelessness of former curators, hitherto
born to the office of superintendents of this establish-
ment, having intrusted him with this duty, Buffon's
choice became fixed for ever on Natural History, and
he saw opening before him that extensive career which
he ran with such wide-spread reputation.

From the very first he formed an estimate of the
whole extent of it. He perceived at one glance what
was requisite to be done, what he had it in his power
to do, and what he required from the assistance of
others.

Overloaded, from its birth, by the indigested erudi-
tion of the Aldrovands, Gesners, and Johnstons, natural
history appeared, so to speak, mutilated by the scissors
of nomenclators — the Rays, Kleins, and even Linnaeus
himself, presented us with nothing but naked catalogues,
written in a barbarous language, and which, with their
apparent precision, and the care their authors seemed
to have taken to include in them nothing but what could
at any time be verified by observation, contained never-
theless a multitude of errors, both in the details, in the
distinctive characters, and in the systematical arrange-
ments.

To restore life and motion to this cold and inanimate
body ; to paint Nature as she really is, always young
and always in action ; to sketch with a comprehensive
pencil the admirable agreement of all her parts, the laws

192 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

by which they are restrained and kept in a uniform
system ; to transfuse into this picture all the freshness
and splendour of the original : — such was the most diffi-
cult task that author had to undertake who would re-
store this beautiful science to the lustre it had lost;
such was that in which the ardent imagination of Buffon,
his elevated genius, and deep feeling for the beauties of
nature, ought to have enabled him to undertake with
perfect success.

But if truth had not been the foundation of his un-
dertaking ; if he had lavished the brilliant colours of
his palette on incorrect or unfaithful drawings, and had
combined only imaginary facts, he might indeed have
appeared as an elegant writer or ingenious poet, but he
would not have been a naturalist, and he could not have
aspired to the object at which his ambition aimed, that
of being a reformer in science.

It was necessary, therefore, that every thing should
be reviewed, collected, and observed ; it was necessary
to compare the forms and dimensions of beings ; to carry
the scalpel into their interior, and disclose the most
secret parts of their organization. BuiFon felt that his
impatient mind would not allow him to engage in such
toilsome labours ; and that, moreover, the weakness of
his eye-sight would deprive him of the hope of engaging
in them with success. He sought for an individual, who,
joined to the correctness of judgment and delicacy of tact,
necessary for such researches, had enough of modesty
and devotion to the subject, to be satisfied with a part

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 193

of the duty apparently secondary ; to be in some degree
as an eye and a hand to him ; and he found such an
individual in the companion of his youthful sports,
Daubenton.

He indeed found in him more than he sought for,
more even than he thought necessary for his purpose ;
and it is not perhaps in the department in which he
asked for his assistance, that Daubenton was most use-
ful to him.

In fact, it may be affirmed, that there never was a
connection more appropriate. Both in regard to physical
and moral qualifications, there existed between the two
friends that perfect contrast which one of our most
amiable writers assures us is necessary to render a union
lasting; and each of them seemed to have received
precisely those qualities fitted to temper those of the
other by their opposition.

Buffon, of a vigorous frame and imposing appearance,
of an imperious disposition, and ardent in all he under-
took, seemed to have divined the truth and not to have
observed it. His imagination continually placed itself
between nature and himself, and hie eloquence seemed
to exercise itself against his reason, before having en-
deavoured to sway that of others.

Daubenton, of a frail temperament and mild look,
and a moderation which he owed to Nature as much as
to his own wisdom, conducted his researches with the
most scrupulous circumspection. He believed nothing,
he affirmed nothing, but what he had seen and touched.

194 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

Far from wishing to persuade by other means than the
evidence itself, he carefully excluded from his discourses
and writings every image and expression calculated to
seduce. Of unwearied patience, he never allowed him-
self to be discouraged by delay ; he recommenced the
same task till he had succeeded to his mind ; and, by a
method perhaps too rare among men occupied with
science of observation, all the resources of his mind
seemed to be united in imposing silence on his imagina-
tion.

Buffon supposed that he had merely obtained a labo-
rious assistant, who would smooth for him the inequa-
lities of his path ; and he had found a faithful guide,
who pointed out to him the dangers and precipices. A
hundred times, the arch smile which escaped from his
friend, when he entertained some doubt, caused him to
revert to his first ideas ; a hundred times, one of the
words which that friend knew so well how to throw in,
arrested him in his precipitate progress ; and the saga-
city of the one becoming thus allied to the strength of
the other, tended to give to the history of quadrupeds,
the only one that was common to the two authors, the
perfection which renders it, if not the most interesting
of those which enter into Buffon's great Natural His-
tory, at least that which is freest from errors, and
which will be longest regarded as classical by natu-
ralists.

It is, therefore, even less by what he did for him,
than by what he prevented him doing, that Daubenton

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 195

was useful to Buifon, and that the latter ought to have
been so thankful for having formed the connection.

It was about the year 1742 that Buifon took him to
Paris. The situation of Curator and Demonstrator in
the Cabinet of Natural History was almost a sinecure ;
the individual who possessed the title, named Moguez,
having lived for a long time in the country ; and the
duties, such as they were, were fulfilled from time to
time by some one attached to the Garden. Buifon
caused this office to be revived for Daubenton, and it
was conferred on him by brevet in 1745. The emolu-
ments, which at first did not exceed 500 francs, were
gradually increased to 4000 francs. When he became
connected with the Academy of Sciences, Buifon, who
was treasurer, made him several gratuities. From the
time of his arrival in Paris, he likewise provided him
with a place of residence. In a word, he neglected
nothing to provide for him that ease which is necessary
for every man of letters, and every one who wishes to
occupy himself with nothing but science.

Daubenton, on his part, devoted himself, without in-
terruption, to investigations fitted to second the views
of his benefactor, and he erected, by means of these
labours, the two principal monuments of his own
glory.

One of the two, although not a printed book, is a
book not less beautiful than instructive, since it is
almost that of Nature ; I speak of the Cabinet of Natural
History in the Jardin des Plantes. Before Daubenton's

196 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

time, this was nothing else than a mere druggist s shop,
where the products of the public courses of chemistry
were collected, in order that they might be distributed
to the sick poor. In natural history, properly so called,
it contained only a few shells collected by Tournefort,
which had served to amuse the early years of Louis XV.,
many of them still bearing marks of the royal infant's
caprice.

In a very few years he changed the entire face of it.
Minerals, fruits, woods, and shells, were collected from
every quarter, and exposed in the most beautiful order.
Every thing was done to discover, or to bring to perfec-
tion, the means by which the different parts of orga-
nised bodies might be preserved ; the lifeless skins of
quadrupeds and birds reassumed the appearances of life,
and presented to the observer the smallest details of
their characters, at the same time that they astonished
the curious by the variety of their forms, and the bril-
liancy of their colours.

Formerly, a few wealthy individuals ornamented
their cabinets with the productions of Nature ; but they
excluded from them such as might impair their beauty,
or deprive them of the appearance of decoration. Some
savants had collected the objects which might assist
their researches, or support their opinions ; but limited
in their fortunes, they were obliged to work for a long
time before completing even an insulated department.
A few curious individuals had assembled a series of
objects which satisfied their tastes ; but they usually

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 197

contented themselves with things of the most trifling
nature, more fitted to please the eye than to enlighten
the mind. The most brilliant shells, the most varied
pebbles, the beet cut and most brilliant gems, usually
formed the main body of their collections.

Daubenton, aided by Buffon, and profiting by the
means which the credit of his friend obtained for him
from the Government, conceived and executed a more
extensive plan. He thought that none of the produc-
tions of Nature should be excluded from her temple.
He conceived, that such of these productions as we
regard as the most important, cannot be well known
but by comparing them with all others ; that there are
none of them, which, by their numerous relations, are
not connected more or less directly with the rest of
Nature. He therefore excluded none, and made the
greatest efforts to collect all. He executed, in parti-
cular, that great number of anatomical preparations
which for a long time distinguished the Cabinet of Paris,
and which, though less agreeable to the vulgar eye, are
most useful to the man who will not limit his researches
to the surface of created beings, and who endeavours
to render natural history a philosophical science, by
making it explain the phenomena it describes.

The study and arrangement of these treasures had
become in him a true passion, the only one, perhaps,
that was ever remarked in him. He shut himself up,
for entire days, in the Cabinet. He reviewed, in a
thousand ways, the objects he had assembled there ; ha

198 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

scrupulously examined all their parts ; he tried all pos-
sible orders, until he fell upon that which neither
offended the eye nor did violence to the natural rela-
tions.

This taste for the arrangement of a cabinet showed
itself very strongly in his latter years, when victories
brought to the Museum of Natural History a new mass
of riches, and when circumstances admitted of giving a
greater development to the whole. At eighty-four years
of age, his head sunk upon his breast, his feet and hands
disfigured by gout, not able to walk unless supported by
two people, he caused himself to be led every morning
to the cabinet, in order to preside over the arrangement
of the minerals, the only part which remained in his
hands in the new organization of the establishment.

Thus, it is principally to Daubenton that France is
indebted for that temple, so worthy of the goddess to
whom it is dedicated ; and in which we know not what
to admire most, the astonishing fecundity of Nature,
which produced so many living beings, or the indefati-
gable patience of the individual who could collect all
these beings, name them, classify them, point out their
relations, describe their parts, and explain their pro-
perties.

The second monument Daubenton left behind him
ought to have been, according to his primitive plan, the
result and complete description of this cabinet ; but cir-
cumstances to which we shall soon refer, prevented him
carrying his description further than the quadrupeds .

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. % 199

This is not the place to analyze the descriptive part
of the Natural History,* a work as immense in its de-
tails as it is astonishing from the boldness of its plan,
nor to point out all that it contains new and important
for naturalists. It will be sufficient to give an idea of
it, to mention, that it contains the description, exterior
as well as interior, of a hundred and eighty-two species
of quadrupeds, fifty-two of which had never before
been dissected, and thirteen of which had not even
been described externally. It also contains the descrip-
tion, exterior only, of twenty-six species, five of which
were not known. The number of species entirely new
is therefore eighteen; but the new facts, relating to
such as were already known more or less superficially,
are innumerable. The greatest merit of the work, how-
ever, is the order and spirit in which these descriptions
are drawn up, and which is the same in regard to all
the species. The author is pleased to repeat, that he
was the first who had established a comparative ana-
tomy; and that was true in this sense, that all his
observations were arranged on the same plan, and
their number being the same for the smallest animal
and the largest, it is extremely easy to seize all the
relations; not being confined to any system, he has
bestowed equal attention on all the facts ; and he
never could be tempted to neglect or disguise what

* The three first volumes in 4to appeared in 1749; the
twelve following succeeded each other from that period up
to 1767.

200 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

did not appear to conform to the laws which he had
established.

However natural this method may appear to those
who judge of it simply by good sense, it may easily
happen that it cannot be readily followed, since it is so
rare in the works of other naturalists, and because there
are so few of them, for example, who have taken the
trouble of affording us the means of placing the beings
they describe, otherwise than they are in their own
systems.

Accordingly, this work of Daubenton's may be con-
sidered as a rich mine, in which naturalists and ana-
tomists occupied with quadrupeds are obliged to labour,
and from which many writers have derived their most
valuable materials, without any acknowledgment. It
is sometimes enough to make a table of these observa-
tions, and to place them uncertain columns, in order to
obtain the most striking results ; and it is thus that we
must understand the expression of Camper, That Dau-
benton did not know all the discoveries of which he
was the author.

He has been blamed for not having himself drawn
the picture of these results. It was with a full know-
ledge, of course, that he declined a work which would
have flattered his self-love, but which might have led
him into errors. Nature had shown him too many ex-
ceptions, to enable him to believe that he could esta-
blish a rule ; and his prudence was justified, not only
by the bad success of those who were bolder than him-

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 201

self, but also by his own example ; the only rule he had
ventured to establish, that of the number of cervical
vertebrae in quadrupeds, having been disproved towards
the close of his life.*

He has also been blamed for having restricted his
anatomical investigations, limiting them to the descrip-
tion of the skeleton and viscera, without treating of the
muscles, vessels, nerves, and exterior organs of the
senses : but it cannot be proved that it was possible for
him to avoid this accusation, until we have done better
than he, in the same time, and with the same means.
It is certain at least, that one of his pupils, who wished
to supply these defects, has, for the most part, given us
nothing but compilations, too often insignificant.

Accordingly, as soon as his great work appeared,
Daubenton did not fail to obtain the usual recompense
of all great undertakings ; glory and honour ; criticism
and irritability ; for, in the career of the sciences, as in
all others, it is less difficult to attain to glory and even
fortune, than to preserve tranquillity when one has
attained to them.

Reaumer at that time held the sceptre of Natural
History. No one had shown greater sagacity in obser-
vation,, no one had rendered Nature more interesting
by the wisdom and species of foresight of details, the
proofs of which he had found in the history of the smal-
lest animals. His memoirs on insects, although diffuse,

* There are, in general, seven: the Three Fingered Sloths,
or the animals named Ai, have nine.

202 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

were clear, elegant, and full of that interest which
arises from the curiosity being continually kept on the
stretch by new and singular details. They had begun
to diffuse among people of the world a taste for the
study of Nature.

It was not without some feeling of dissatisfaction
that Reaumer saw himself eclipsed by a rival, whose
bold views and magnificent style, excited the enthu-
siasm of the public, and inspired them with a kind of
contempt for researches in appearance so minute as
those which have insects for their object. He showed
his bad humour in a somewhat sharp manner. He is
supposed even to have contributed to the publication of
some critical letters, in which the discussions of an
obscure metaphysician are opposed to the eloquence
of the painter of Nature, and in which Daubenton,
in whom Reaumur believed he saw the only solid sup-
port of what he called, the prestiges of his rival, was
by no means spare:!. The Academy sometimes witnes-
sed more direct quarrels, the recollection of which has
not altogether reached us, but which were so strong,
that Buffon was obliged to employ his influence with
the favourite of the day,* to support his friend, and
enable him to reach those higher degrees which were
due to his works.

There is no celebrated man who has not experienced
such disagreeable occurrences; for, under every pos-
sible combination of circumstances, there is never a
* Madame de Pompadour.

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 203

man of merit without some adversaries ; and those who
wish to do injury never fail to find some willing to pro-
tect them.

Merit was so much the more fortunate in not giving
way on this occasion, that it was not of a nature to
strike the multitude. A modest and scrupulous observer
could neither captivate the vulgar, nor even philoso^
phers who were unacquainted with natural history ; for
philosophers always judge of works which do not "belong
to their department like the vulgar, and the number of
naturalists was then very small. If Daubenton's work
had appeared alone, it would have remained in the
hands of anatomists and naturalists, who would have
appreciated it at its just value ; and their suffrages de-
termining that of the multitude, the latter would have
respected the author on their word, just as unknown
gods are the more revered the more impenetrable their
sanctuary. But, appearing by the side of the work of
his brilliant rival, that of Daubenton was taken into
the toilette of ladies and the cabinet of literary men ;
the comparison of his measured style and circumspect
progress, with the lively poetry and bold flights of his
rival, could not be to his advantage ; and the minute
details of dimensions and descriptions into which he
entered, could not remove from such judges the ennui
with which they were necessarily accompanied.

Thus, when all the naturalists of Europe received,
with mingled gratitude and admiration, the results of
the immense labours of Daubenton ; when they gave to

204 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

the work that contained them, and for the sole reason
that it did contain them, the names of work of gold, a
work truly classical ; they regarded with indifference
the author at Paris : and some of those flatterers, who
creep before renown as before power, because renown is
likewise power, succeeded in making Buifon believe,
that he would gain by getting rid of his importunate
fellow labourer. We have even heard since the secre-
tary of an illustrious academy assert, that naturalists
alone might regret, if he had followed this advice !

Buffon therefore caused an edition of the Natural
History to be prepared, in thirteen volumes 12to., from
which not only the anatomical part was excluded, but
also the description of the exterior of animals, which
Daubenton had drawn up for the large edition ; and as
nothing was substituted, it followed that this work gives
no idea of the form, nor colour, nor distinctive charac-
ters of animals ; so that if this small edition had alone
resisted the prejudices of the times, as the multitude
of impressions now published would lead us to believe,
we would no longer find much better means of recog-
nising the animals of which the author speaks, than are
to be found in Pliny and Aristotle, who have likewise
neglected the detail of descriptions.

Buifon determined to appear alone in what he after-
wards published," both on birds and minerals. Be-
sides the affront, Daubenton thereby suffered a con-
siderable loss. He might have remonstrated ; for this
undertaking on natural history had been concerted in

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 205

common; but, by so doing, lie must have quarrelled
with the superintendent of the Jardin du Hoi, and onust
have left the cabinet he had created, and to which he
clung as to life. He forgot the affront and the loss,
and continued to work as before.

The regret which every naturalist manifested, when
they saw the commencement of the History of Birds
appear, without being accompanied with those exact
descriptions, and careful anatomical details, which they
prized so highly, must have tended to console him.

He would have had still more reason to be so, if his
attachment for the great man who neglected him had
not prevailed over his self love, when he saw those first
volumes, to which Gueneau of Montbeillard contributed
nothing, filled with inaccuracies, and destitute of all
those details which it was physically and morally im-
possible that Buifon could furnish.

These imperfections were still more marked in the
Supplements, works of Buffon's old age, in which this
great writer carries his injustice so far as to devolve
on a mere painter the part which Daubenton had so
well executed in the first volumes.

Many naturalists, accordingly, endeavoured to supply
this want; and the celebrated Pallas, among others,
absolutely took Daubenton for his model in his Miscel-
lanea and Spicilegia Zoologica, as well as in his His-
toire des Rongeurs, works which ought to be considered
as real supplements to Buffon, and as the best which
appeared on quadrupeds after his great work.

b

206 MEMOIR 'OF DAUBENTON,

Every one knows with what success the illustriocrg
continuator of Buffon in the department of fishes and
reptiles — who*' was 'likewise the friend and colleague of
Daubenton, and who still laments him along with our-
selves— has united in Ms writings the double advantage
of an ornate style, full of imagery, and a scrupulous
accuracy in the .details, and how he has -equally well
Teplaced bdth his predecessors.

Daubenton so far* forgot the little a^ts^ of injustice on
the part of his old friend, that vfce afterwards contri-
buted to many parts of 'the Ndtural History , although
hre name *iever appeared in connection with it ; and we
possess proof, that Buffon consulted the manuscript t)f
all his prelections in the- College of France, when he
wrote his History of Minerals. Their intimacy was
even entirely re-established, and continued to the death
of Buffon.

During the eighteen years in which the early ^to
volumes of the History of Quadrupeds were published,
Daubenton could give only a small*number of memoirs
to the Academy of Sciences ; but he made Alp for this
afterwards ; and a great number 'from his pen exist,
both in the collection of the Academy, and in those of
the Societies of Medicine, Agriculture, and.1 the National
Institute. All of them, as well as the works he pub-
lished separately, contain some interesting facts or some
new views.

To give the names of them alone would exceed the
limits of an eloge ; and we shall content ourselves by

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. ,207

indicating, summarily, the principal discoveries with
which he enriched certain branches of, human know-
ledge.

In Zoology, Daubenton has discovered five species of
Bats and one of Sorex, which had escaped the, obser-
vation of preceding naturalists, although all of them
pretty common in France.

He has given a complete description of the species of
Deer which produces musk, and made some curious re-
marks on its organization.

He has described a singular conformation,, in the
vocal organs of some foreign birds.

He is the i}rst,whc applied the knowledge of com-
parative Anatomy to the determination of species of
quadrupeds whose, remains have been found in a fossil
state \ anxl although he has not been always fortunate
in his conjectures, he has, nevertheless, opened an im-
portant career for the history of the revolutions of the
globe; he has destroy edH for, ever those ridiculous no-
tions about giants, which ;were urenewed every time the

„ Jxmes of any large animal happened to be disinterred.*

The most remarkable instance , of his discrimination

in this way, was the /determination of a bone, which

;wwas preserved air Garde:meuble, as the bone of a giant's

;leg. He perceived, by means of comparative anatomy,
.that this, was J the, bone, of a Giraffe, although he had

. never seen that animal, and no figure of its skeleton

«• * JEJis papers jOn the various subjects referred to, will be
found in the Memoires de V Academic des Sciences.

208 51EMOIR OF DAtBENTOff.

existed. He had the pleasure of verifying this conjec-
ture, when, thirty years after, the Museum obtained
the skeleton of the giraffe which is now preserved^
there.

Before his time, very vague ideas prevailed on the
differences between Man and the Orang-outang. Some
regarded the latter as a wild man ; others alleged that
it was man degenerated, and that it is his nature to go
on four feet. Daubenton proved, by an ingenuous and
decisive observation on the articulation' of the head,
that Man could never walk otherwise than on two feet,
nor the Orang-outang otherwise than on four.

In vegetable physiology, he was the first who called
attention to the fact, that all trees do not increase by
exterior and concentric layers. The trunk of a palm,
which he examined, showed none of these layers ;
roused by this observation, he perceived, that the in-
crease of this tree takes place by the prolongation of
the fibres from the centre, which develop themselves in
leaves. He explained by this, why the trunk of a palm
does not grow thicker as it increases in age, and why it
is of the same size throughout its whole length ; but he
did not push his researches further. M. Desfontaines,
who had observed the same thing a long while before,
has exhausted this matter, so to speak, by proving, that
these two modes of growth distinguish trees whose seeds
have two cotyledons, and such as have only one ; and
establishing on this important discovery a fundamental
division in Botany.

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON, 209 .

Daubenton was likewise the first who had perceived
in the bark the trachea, or shining elastic vessels, often
filled with air, which others had discovered in the
wood.

Mineralogy has made such rapid progress of late
years, that the labours of Daubenton in this department
of Natural History are almost now eclipsed, and there
only remains for him the reputation of having given to
the science the individual who advanced it further. It
is he who was the master of Haiiy, He published, how-
ever, some ingenious notions respecting the formation
of alabasters and stalactites, on the causes of herboriza-
tion on stones and figured marbles ; and descriptions of
minerals little known at the time when he noticed them.
It is true, that his arrangement of precious stones is not
conformable to their real mature ; but he at least renders
the nomenclature of their ..colours more precise.

We find, more or less, in all these works of Dau-
benton on physical subjects, that kind of talent which
was peculiar to him, a patience which would not fail to
try to divine Nature, because it never despaired of
forcing Nature to explain herself, by means of repeated
interrogations, and that skilful sagacity in seizing the
slightest signs that might indicate a response.

We perceive, in his works on agriculture, another
quality besides ; namely, anxiety for public usefulness.
What he did for the improvement of our wools deserves
for ever the gratitude of the state, to which he opened
up a new source of prosperity.

210 MEMOIR OF DAUBENtON.-

He begun his experiments on this subject' in 1766,
and continued them till his death. Farotired from the
first by Trudaine, he received encouragement from all
the ministers who succeeded that enlightened and pa-
triotic individual, and he responded to it in a manner
worthy of himself.

To show, in the clearest manner, the advantage of
always keeping sheep in parks ; to demonstrate the per-
nicious consequences of the* practice of closing up sheep
in houses' during the winter; to'try various 'means of
improving' tne race1; to find means of determining, with
precision, the degree of fineness in the" wool; to become
acquainted with the 'true mechanism of rumination, and
to deduce from thdiice useful conclusions respecting the
constitution of wool-bearing animals, aiid the modes of
feeding and managing them ; to spread the produce of
his stock throughout the provinces; to distribute his'
rams among all the proprietors of flocks; ta weave
cloths with these wools, in order to show their 'superio-
rity ; to rear intelligent shepherds to propagate the
practice of his method; to draw up instructions level
to the capacity of all classes of agriculturists. Such
is a rapid summary of Daubeltton's labours on this im-
portant subject.

Almost at every public sitting of the Academy he
gave an account of his researches, and often obtained
more applause from the gratitude of his assistants, than
his associates received for the most difficult discoveries
but whose utility was less obvious.

MEMOIR OF DA-UBENTON, 211

His success has since "been surpassed. The entire
ftocks^ brought by Government from Spain at the re-
quest of M. Tessier, as well as those brought by M.
Gilbert, have spread a fine race over the country, with
much greater rapidity than Daubenton could <}o by
means of his rams alone; but -he, nevertheless, led the
way, and did1 all -that- was « possible with th& means he
possessed;

He acquired, by these means j a Mad of popular re-
putation, which was very useful to him i& a dangerous
crisis. In 1793, an epoch fortunately already remote
from us, when, by an overturn of ideas which will be
long memorable in history, the most ignorant portion
of the people had to pronounce -on the fate _©f the most
intelligent and nobly born, Daubenton, now an octo-
genarian, in order to retain the situation he had honour-
ed by his talents and virtues for fifty-two years, required
to^ask ft&m an' assembly, which assumed the name of
the section Sans-culottes, a paper of which the extra-
ordinary name was Certijtcat $e Civisme. A professor
or academician would have obtained it with difficulty.
Some sensible people, mixed with the infuriated rabble
in the hope of restraining their excesses, presented him
under the title of Shepherd'; and it was the Shepherd
Daubenton who obtained the certificate necessary for
the Director of the Museum of Natural History. This
paper still exists. It is a document, calculated to throw
light not only on the life of Daubenton, but on the
history of this dismal period.

212 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON.

These numerous labours would have exhausted a
bustling activity, but they were insufficient for the
peaceable love of a regulated occupation, which formed
part of Daubenton's character.

It had been for a long time a subject of regret, that
in France there were no public lectures on Natural
History. He managed, in 1773, that one of the chairs of
Practical Medicine, in the College of France, should be
changed into a chair of Natural History, and undertook,
in 1775, to fill it. The intendant of Paris, Berthier,
engaged him, in 1783, to give lectures on Rural Economy
in the Veterinary School of Alford, at the same time that
Vicq. d'Azyr gave lectures on Comparative Anatomy and
Fourcroy on Chemistry.

He likewise desired to give lectures in the cabinet of
Paris, where the objects themselves would have spoken
even more distinctly than the professor ; and not having
been able to accomplish this under the old regime, he
united with the other individuals of the Jardin des
Plantes, in requesting the Convention to convert this
establishment into a special school of Natural History.

Daubenton was nominated Professor of Mineralogy
in this establishment, and he fulfilled the duties of that
office till his death, with the same care that he bestow-
ed on every thing he undertook.

It was indeed an affecting sight to observe the old
man, surrounded by his pupils, who listened with reli-
gious attention to his words, which, in their estimation,
were like the responses of an oracle ; to hear his feeble

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTOI*. 213

and tremulous voice become reanimated, and acquire
strength and energy, when he wished to impress on
their minds some of those great principles which are
the result of the meditations of genius, or when he was
merely explaining to them some useful truths.

He had not more pleasure in speaking to them than
in listening to what they said. He lent a ready ear to
all their questions, which afforded him the greatest
pleasure. He forgot his years and weakness whenever
he thought he could be useful to the youth around him,
and when he had any duty to perform.

One of his colleagues having offered, when he was
appointed a senator, to assist him in teaching : " My
friend," he replied, " no one could fill my place better
than you : when age shall force me to give up my la-
bours, be assured tha£ I will devolve them on you." He
was then eighty-three years of age.

Nothing can afford a better proof of his zeal for
study, than the pains he took to keep pace with the
progress of science, and to avoid imitating those pro-
fessors, who, when once settled in a place, merely repeat
the same thing every year. At eighty years of age, he
has been heard explaining the discoveries of one of his
old pupils, M. Haiiy; forcing himself to understand
them, that he might give an account of them to the
youth whom he taught. This example is so rare among
philosophers, that it may perhaps be considered one of
the most beautiful traits in Daubenton's character.

During the ephemeral existence of the Normal School

214 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON;

he delivered some lectures there. He was received*
with the most lively enthusiasm every time he appeared ;
every time his numerous auditory recognised in his ex-
pressions the sentiments with which they were animated,
and which they were delighted to see they shared with
this venerable old man.

This is the place to speabof some of his works, wkich
are not so much intended to explain, his discoveries, as
to teach systematically some body of doctrine ; such are
his articles for the two Encyclopaedias, particularly the
Encyclopedie Methodique^ for which he drew up dic-
tionaries of quadrupeds, reptiles, and fishes*; his miner-
alogieal table, andJ lectures- in the normal: school. He
has left the complete- manuscript of those of the Vsteri*
nary School, of the College of France, and of the Mu-
seum. It is to be hoped that the public will not be
deprived of them.

These didactic writings^ are remarkable for their great
clearness, sound principles, and a scrupulous attention-
to avoid every thing that is doubtful ; only we are sur-
prised to* see, that the same individual who declaimed
with such vigour against any kind of method in natu-
ral history, should have finished by adopting methods
which are neither better, nor perhaps so good as those
he found fault with, as if he had been destined to- prove,
by his example, how far his earliest -prepossessions were
contrary to the nature of things and of man.

Finally, besides aft these works- and lectures, Dau-
benton had a share fai editing, the Jour-nal des&avans;

rw rMiTTHTNTON., 215*

and; in his latter years, at the request of the 'Committee
of Public Instruction, he had undertaken •> to compose
Elements of Natural History for the -use of the Primary
Schools ; but these elements were not completed.

We are naturally led to- inquire, how it happened,
that one of frail temperament, and with so many labo-
rious occupations, could reach so advanced an-age with-
out any painful- infirmities. This was owing to- -a care-
ful study of himself, and an attention calculated equally
to avoid excesses • of body, heart, and - intellect. Hia
regimen, without being austere, was very uniform ; he
always lived in easy circumstances, esteeming fortune
and grandeur at their- real value, and having little de-
sire for them-. He had, in particular, the strength of
mind to avoid the danger to- which almost all literary
characters • are- exposed, an inordinate passion for re-
putation. His researches were an amusement to him
rather than -a labour. A portion of his time was em-
ployed in reading; with his wife, romances,' stories, and
6ther light works ; the most frivolous works of the day
were read by him. This he called " putting his mind
a la dietk"

There can be no doubt, that this uniformity of regi-<
men, and constancy of health, contributed much to that
kindliness of disposition which rendered his society so
agreeable; but another feature of his character* which
contributed not less to this, and which struck all who
came near him, was the good opinion he> appeared- to
have of mankind.

216 MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON,

It seemed naturally to arise from this, that he had
seen little of them; and being exclusively occupied
with the contemplation of Nature, he never took any
share in the proceedings of the active part of society.
But it sometimes went to an astonishing length. Al-
though of such delicate tact in detecting error, he never
seamed to suspect a falsehood ; he always manifested
new surprise when intrigue or interest, concealed ander
a fair exterior, was exposed to him. Whether this
ignorance was natural to him, or he had voluntarily
disregarded the knowledge of mankind, in order to spare
himself the annoyance endured by those who know them
best, it did not fail to throw over his conversation an
air of -charity and good nature, the more to be admired,
as it contrasted so strongly with the spirit of keen dis-
crimination he displayed in all matters of pure reason-
ing. It was impossible, accordingly, to have intercourse
with him without loving him ; and never did any man
receive more numerous proofs of affection or respect
from others, at all periods of his life, and under all suc-
cessive governments.

He has been blamed for having received honours
unworthy of him, and odious from the very names of
those who offered them ; but this was a consequence of
the system, with which he judged even statesmen, which
led him never to suppose their motives to be different
from what they expressed; a dangerous method, no
doubt, but which, perhaps, we have too much aban-
doned in the present day.

MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 217

Another disposition of his mind, and which has fur-
ther contributed to these imputations of pusillanimity
or egotism which have been made against him even in
printed works, which however does not justify them
the more, was his entire obedience to the law, not as
being just, but simply as the law. This submission to
human laws was absolutely of the same description as
that which he had for the laws of nature : it no more
permitted him to murmur against those which deprived
him of fortune, or the reasonable use of his liberty, than
against those which disfigured his limbs with gout.
Some one has said of him, that he looked upon the
swellings of his fingers with the same sang-froid as he
would have done the knots on a tree ; and this was
literally true. It was equally true of the indifference
with which he would have given up his situation and
fortune, and gone into distant exile, had tyrants re-
quired it of him.

Besides, even although the maintenance of his tran-
quillity may have been the motive of some of his actions,
does not the use which he made of that tranquillity
absolve him from blame ? And the man who extracted
so many secrets from Nature, and laid the foundations
of a science almost new ; who has given to his country
an entire branch of industry ; who has reared one of
the most important monuments in science, and formed
so many enlightened pupils, many of whom now occupy
the first places among the philosophers of the day, Does
such a man now require to be justified for having

218 MEMOIR OF DAUBEIsTTOtf.

managed to .accomplish the means of doing all this_,good
to his country, and to humanity ?

The universal acclamations of his fellow-citizen;?
answer.for me against such accusations. The last and
most solemn .marks of their esteem have terminated a
niost .useful career, in a manner most glorious ; perhaps
we have even to regret tbat they shortened its ,course.

Having been nominated a jnember of .the, conserva-
tive senate, he was desirous to fulfil his new duties as
he . had discharged those of his whole life. He wo,*
obliged .to make some, change in his reginoen.. The
season was very severe. The .first ijme he attended a
meeting of the body who elected him, he, was struck
with apoplexy, and fell senseless. into the arms of his
alarmed colleagues. The, most prompt assistance- could
restore consciousness only for a few minutes, during
which he appeared, as he always had been, the trail-
quil observer of Nature. He continued to touch with
his fingers, which were not deprived of sensation, the
different. parts of his body, indicating to his attendants
the, progress of the paralysis. .He died, on the 31st
December, .1799, at. the age of eighty T»four,, without
suffering; so, that we may say, that he attained a
happiness,, if not attended with the most brilliant
.accompaniments, .at least more perfect, and free from
.mixture, than we can reasonably expect here.

His funeral ..was such as .became one of our first
.magistrates, one of. our. most "illustrious philosophers,
.and one of our most respectable citizens. People g£,all

"MEMOIR -"OF DAUBENTON. 219

ranks and ages rendered to his ashes the testimony of
their veneration. His remains were deposited in the
Garden he had embellished, and which his virtues had
honoured for sixty years ; and his tomb, according to
the expression of an individual who does equal honour
to the -sciences and the senate, will render it an elysium,
by adding the charms of sentiment to the beauties of
Nature. Two of his colleagues have been the eloquent
interpreters of the sorrow of all who knew him. Pardon
me, if these painful feelings affect me at this moment,
when I ought to be only the interpreter of the public
gratitude, and if they carry me away from the ordinary
tone of an academical eloge ; pardon him, I say, whom
he honoured with his kindness, and whose master and
benefactor he was.

Madame Daubenton, whose agreeable works have
made her name known in literature, and with whom he
passed fifty years in happy union, brought him no
children.

His place in the Institute was filled by M. Pinel ; in
the Museum of Natural History by M. Hauy ; and I
had the happiness to be chosen as his successor in the
College of France.

THE

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