GENERIC CHARACTER.
Bill falcated; upper mandible moveable, and in general covered with a cere: nostrils rounded, placed in the base of the bill: tongue fleshy, obtuse, entire: feet formed for climbing.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER
AND
SYNONYMS.
Green: rump and breast scarlet: crown of the male blue.
Psittacus Galgulus: viridis, uropygio pectoreque coccineis, vertice (maris) cæruleo.—Linn. Amoen. ac. 4. p. 286.—Mus. Ad. Fr. ii. p. 16.—Osbeck. it. 101.
Psittacus Galgulus: viridis, uropygio pectoreque coccineis, vertice cæruleo, lunula cervicis lutea, tectricibus caudæ rubris.—Lath. Ind. Orn. T. 1. 148. p. 131.
Perruche à tête bleue. Buff. hist. nat. des. ois. 6. p. 163.
Petite perruche de Pérou. Buff. pl. enlum. n. 190. f. 2.
Petite perruche de l’isle de Luçon. Sonner, it. p. 76. t. 33.
Sapphire-Crowned Parrakeet. Edw. glean. t. 293. f. 2.
This gay little creature is one of the smaller kind of the Psittacus or Parrot tribe, and of that family which is distinguished by having the tail short and equal at the end. Its size is rather less than that of our common house sparrow. The prevailing colour of the plumage a rich vernal green, deepest in its hues on the back and wings, and rather paler or more delicate in its tint beneath; the breast and rump scarlet; the feathers of the latter elongated and extending far over the tail, which is green; the crown of the head a beautiful Sapphirine blue. This appears to be the male bird. That which is considered as the female has a yellow spot upon the throat: it is destitute of any scarlet spot upon the breast, and the Sapphirine colour on the crown of the head is also wanting.
These are the characteristic distinctions observable generally in the species; besides which there are other less material particulars in which these birds are known to differ.
In some birds we find a yellow transverse stripe on the hind part of the neck, varying in colour from luteous to orange, and which is more or less conspicuous in different individuals. Others have a somewhat similar band of yellow, but which is situated at the back of the head instead of the neck. The first of these is distinguished by the name of the Sapphire Crowned Parrakeet, the other by that of the Phillippine Parrakeet. Dr. Latham has endeavoured to establish the characteristic distinctions of these two kinds in his Index Ornithologicus: he considers them as permanent varieties, but we must confess we regard them rather as accidental than permanent. The characteristic band of yellow by which they are to be discriminated chiefly, appears to be more or less developed in different birds at different periods of their growth; and in the absence of this character from the back of the head in the Phillippine Parrakeet, or the hind part of the neck in the Sapphire Crowned Parrakeet, the resemblance is so very near as to afford no certain means of distinguishing one from the other.
This bird has been long known in Europe. It appeared in the work of Edwards, the ingenious English Ornithologist, who lived about the middle of the last century. Linnæus describes the species with much critical minuteness in the fourth volume of his Amoenitates Academicæ, as Psittacus Galgulus, brachiurus viridis pectore uropygioque coccineis, vertice cæruleo; and this description accords so exactly with the bird before us, that no doubt whatever can remain of its being exactly the variety which that eminent Naturalist has described.
Edwards informs us that this bird is a native of Sumatra; Osbeck met with it in Java, where he tells us it is known by the name of Parkicki. The title of Perruche de Pérou which it bears in Pdl. Enl. might induce a persuasion of its being an inhabitant of South America, which, however, is not believed among Ornithologists. We have already mentioned that it occurs in the Phillippine Islands, and that from this locality, the particular variety found there has obtained the appellation of the Phillippine Parrakeet.
We are indebted to Osbeck for a concise description of the manners of this interesting species when in a state of captivity, “if put into a cage,” observes this traveller, “it whistles very seldom and commonly grows quite sullen: it hangs itself with its feet so that the back is turned towards the earth, and seldom changes this situation: it is fed with boiled rice; in which manner, in the year 1752, one was brought to Gottenburgh.” It is probably this information to which Linnæus alludes in his Academic paper, delivered in 1760, where in speaking of the manners of this bird, he tells us it sleeps on trees, suspended by one foot with its head downwards, in order to escape the observation of the rapacious birds of night. The nest of these birds are described by Toreen. “We observed,” says this writer, “that their nests were remarkable for their exceeding fine texture, but we did not see the birds. If these nests were differently constructed, the monkies would be very mischievous to them; but now, before they can get to the opening, the lowest part, as the weakest, breaks into pieces, and the visitor falls to the ground without danger to the young birds.”
This bird is observed to be very partial to the fresh juice of the cocoa tree, which flows from the ends of the branches when the fruit has been fresh cut off; and which before it undergoes fermentation is said in taste to resemble new-made cyder.
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London. Published as the Act Directs, by E. Donovan, & Mess.rs Simpkin, & Marshall, Sept. 1, 1822.