Parakeet

“ These are the physical features of the ordinary parakeet. If this bird was found in Virginia when it was first explored, of which from this description, it seems, there can be no doubt, it now has entirely disappeared, an assertion that cannot be made concerning the other species to which the earliest observers have left references. There is no modern bird with which the parakeet of Hamor and Strachey can be identified; there is none that even approaches it in the general character of its plumage. ”

“ We only thoroughly identified this beautiful little bird, by an inspection of the costly work of Le Vaillant on this family, in the Banksian Library: for the description of the orange-winged Parakeet of Dr. Latham is not applicable; and Dr. Shaw has persisted in the old error of considering this species a variety of the Toui Parakeet, although the question had been put at rest by the original description and sound reasons of Le Vaillant. There is a wide difference between naturalists who compile, and form their theories from books, and those who study nature, and think for themselves ”

“ This is shown in Fig. 2, where the parakeet auklet (Cyclorrhynchus psittaculus) can occur in the food web at different levels, depending both on the prey it is eating and on what its prey is eating. Even without this complication, many seabirds feed at more than one level in the food web. For instance, murres eating euphausiids would be feeding at a different level than murres feeding on larger fish. ”

“ P. Green; front, chin, under wing-covers, and spots in the neck, flanks and scapulars crimson; shoulders dark-red; crown, external wing-covers, and lateral tail-feathers violet-blue; quills blueish-black margined with yellow. P. discolor. Red-shouldered Parakeet. White's Voyage, pl. at p. 263. La Perruche Banks. Le Vaill, pl. 50.
This is another of the splendid little Parakeets inhabiting the forests of New Holland; and vivid as the colouring may appear in our figure, it sinks into dullness when compared with the bird itself. Dr. ”

“ Another parakeet, not so big as a sparrow, of a green colour, was sometimes seen in flocks, but we could not succeed in getting one. The Torres Strait and Nicobar pigeons, also Duperrey's Megapodius were common enough, as well as many other birds, twelve species of which are also found in Australia--a most unlooked-for occurrence. ”

“ The flight of the Parakeet is rapid, straight, and continued through the forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied by inclinations of the body which enable the observer to see alternately their upper and under parts. ”

“ Aztec Parakeet.—This species was most common in deciduous forest and scrub at Champotón, Pisté, Puerto Juarez, and especially Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Parakeets were extremely wary and only two were collected.
Specimens (2) : ♂, 40481, testis 3 × 2 mm., 75.0 gm., molting—extensive body molt, 8th primaries ensheathed, middle pair of rectrices are new (August 16) , and ♀, 40482, ovary inactive, 72.4 gm. (August 16) , 4 km. NNE Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
Amazona xantholora (Gray) : Yellow-lored Parrot.—The species was abundant in the vicinity of Champotón. Large flocks congregated near camp ”

“ Yet so numerous is the group that even now new species of parrots are not uncommonly recognized.
The home of the vast majority of parrot-forms is unquestionably within the tropics, but the popular belief that parrots are tropical birds only is a great mistake. In North America the Carolina parakeet, Conurus carolinensis, at the beginning of the 19th century used to range in summer as high as the shores of lakes Erie and Ontario—a latitude equal to the south of France ”

“ Calopsittacus novae hollandiae, the crested Australian Cockatoo-Parakeet, is dark grey, with yellow forehead and cheeks, orange ear-coverts, and white wing-patch. The female has yellow marks on the tail and under parts. By no means shy, the flocks feed chiefly on the ground, while individuals fly well and love perching on dead branches. ”

“ Bird life seems much more abundant on this western side of the island than on the east. Black parrots exist in great numbers and may be heard screeching all the day long. But perhaps the birds which are more numerous still are the small green and white parakeet (Sàrivàzo) , which fly about from tree to tree in large flocks, all ceaselessly chirping during their rapid flight. My friend, Mr Baron, says: “A flock of them settling on a bare tree gives it the appearance of being covered with foliage. ”

“ In South America the species of parrots, though numerically nearly as abundant, are far less diversified in form, and all of them seem capable of being referred to two, or, at most, three sections. The species that has the widest range, and that by far, is the common Ring-necked Parakeet, Palaeornis torquatus, a well-known cage-bird which is found from the mouth of the Gambia across Africa to the coast of the Red Sea, as well as throughout the whole of India, Ceylon and Burmah to Tenasserim. ”

“ On reaching a spot which affords a supply of food, instead of alighting at once, as many other birds do, the Parakeets take a good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over it in circles of great extent, first above the trees, and then gradually lowering until they almost touch the ground, when suddenly re-ascending they all settle on the tree that bears the fruit of which they are in quest, or on one close to the field in which they expect to regale themselves. ”

“ The birds of this country possess in many instances an excessively beautiful plumage; and he alone who has traversed these wild and romantic regions, who has beheld a flock of many-coloured parakeets sweeping like a moving rainbow through the air whilst the rocks and dells resounded with their playful cries, can form any adequate idea of the scenes that there burst on the eyes of the wondering naturalist. ”

“ Large parrots called macaws, parakeets, which are little parrots with long tails, cockatoos and love birds, which belong to the parrot family, and others on down to humming birds that are scarcely larger than wasps, are as thick as microbes in sour milk. ”

“ At dusk, a flock of Parakeets may be seen alighting against the trunk of a large Sycamore or any other tree, when 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 upper mandible, and look as if hanging by the bill. ”

“ Parakeets are plentiful in the monies, and the lagoons swarm with waterfowl. The most esteemed is the pato real, a large duck. Of the birds of bright plumage the humming-bird and the cardinal—the scarlet, the yellow and the white—are the most attractive. ”

“ The beautiful Australian parakeets, known as the Batcherrygar parrots, look so much like the leaves of Eucalpyti, or gum-trees, on which they repose, that, though numbers may be perched upon a branch, they are hardly to be seen so long as they keep quiet. ”

“ Stringops being almost entirely terrestrial, Melopsittacus and Neophema (Grass-Parakeets) , with Geopsittacus and Pezoporus (Ground-Parakeets) , being mainly so, while Cockatoos and many other forms habitually frequent high trees, though Cacatua galerita, Licmetis nasica, and several species of Platycercus spend much time upon the ground. Most Parrots walk with considerable ease, and climb well; their flight is commonly low and undulating, but is comparatively strong in Nestor, the Macaws, the Lories, and the like; the last-named climb less, and often hop along the ground. ”

“ With a little encouragement they become tame and familiar. The parakeets were too noisy, but otherwise were most attractive little birds, as they flew to and fro and scrambled about in the top of the palm behind the house. ”

“ Some (as the macaws) are larger than the domestic fowl, and some of the parakeets are not larger than a blackbird or even a sparrow.
The interesting bird of which our Engraving gives a representation was recently brought alive to this country by the captain of a South-seaman (the Alert) , who obtained it from a Chinese vessel from the Island of Papua, to whom the captain of the Alert rendered valuable assistance when in a state of distress. In size this bird is one of the largest of the parrot tribe, being superior to the great red Mexican Macaw. ”

“ In the Zoological Gardens and in the old Surrey Gardens some few species have coupled, but, with the exception of three species of parakeets, none have bred. It is a much more remarkable fact that in Guiana parrots of two kinds, as I am informed by Sir R. Schomburgk, are often taken from the nests by the Indians and reared in large numbers; they are so tame that they fly freely about the houses, and come when called to be fed, like pigeons ”

“ It is a well-authenticated fact, that a flock of Parakeets were observed some twenty-five miles to the northward of Albany during that year ; so that we have a right to number them among our rare visitors. They have been repeatedly seen in the valley of the Juniata, in Pennsylvania. Birds are frequently carried about against their will by gales of wind; the Stormy Petrels, for instance, thoroughly aquatic as they are, have been found, occasionally, far inland. And in the same way we must
account for the visit of the Parakeets to the worthy Knickerbockers about Albany. ”

“ Green parakeets with black heads chattered as they flew; noisy green and red parrots climbed among the palms; and huge macaws, some entirely blue, others almost entirely red, screamed loudly as they perched in the trees or took wing at our approach. If one was wounded its cries kept its companions circling around overhead. The naturalists found the bird fauna totally different from that which they had been collecting in the hill country near Corumbá, seventy or eighty miles distant; and birds swarmed, both species and individuals. ”

“ This marauder frequently attacks birds far superior to itself in weight, and sometimes possessed of courage equal to its own. As I was one morning observing the motions of some Parakeets near Bayou Sara, in the State of Louisiana, in the month of November, I heard a Cock crowing not far from me, and in sight of a farm-house. The Stanley Hawk the next moment flew past me, and so close that I might have touched it with the barrel of my gun, had I been prepared. Its wings struck with extraordinary rapidity, and its tail appeared as if closed. ”

“ They visit the Mulberries, Pecan-nuts, Grapes, and even the seeds of the Dog-wood, before they are ripe, and on all commit similar depredations. The Maize alone never attracts their notice.
Do not imagine, reader, that all these outrages are borne without severe retaliation on the part of the planters. So far from this, the Parakeets are destroyed in great numbers, for whilst busily engaged in plucking off the fruits or tearing the grain from the stacks, the husbandman approaches them with perfect ease, and commits great slaughter among them. ”

“ A parrot will, by means of its beak, and aided by its thick, fleshy tongue, clear the inside of a fresh pea from the outer skin, rejecting the latter, and performing the whole process with the greatest ease.
“In climbing, I presume you have noticed, she uses her hooked beak as well as her feet; and in feeding she rests on one foot, [99] holding the food to her beak with the other. Her plumage is generally richly-tinted, while in some varieties, like this, it is superb. In all kinds the skin throws off a mealy powder, which saturates the feathers and makes them greasy.” ”

“ They were the advance ranks of a stream of bird-life flowing up the valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries, where conditions are at least somewhat similar to those obtaining in the chaco country to the east, which is their normal habitat.
Apparently the red-tailed parrakeets were mating. Large groups sat on the branches of some stunted tree, preening one another’s plumage, and emitting queer ani-like wails. If one observed closely, however, it could be seen that the flocks were always broken up into pairs that were snuggled up as closely together as possible. ”

“ When a nest is being examined the old birds fly round with great rapidity, or perch on a neighbouring rock whence they exhibit great anxiety. Young in first plumage lack the blue forehead band. In traversing the island I often disturbed pairs or small parties of this Parrakeet, generally in the more open parts. Their chief food seems to be small round seeds, but I could not identify of what species of plant. ”

“ The most curious of these is the parrot-fish, whose head is shaped like the beak of the parrot, and whose color is light green. How wonderfully full is the sea of animal life! All this picture is animal life; for what appears to be the vegetable portion of this sub-marine landscape, is scarcely vegetable at all. The waving ferns, fans, and palms are all instinct with animal life. The patient little toiler of the sea, the coralline insect, is busy with them, as he is with his limestone trees. ”

“ Thus many woodpeckers have the head in the male red, in the female yellow; while some parrots have red spots in the male, replaced by blue in the female, as in Psittacula diopthalma. In many South American Papilios, green spots on the male are represented by red on the female; and in several species of the genus Epicalia, orange bands in the male are replaced by blue in the female, a similar change of colour to that in the small parrot above referred to. ”