The coloration is commonly gaudy, and particularly so in Macaws; yet some species are sober in tint, and that of the beak and feet varies considerably in different forms. Stringops has a disc of stiff feathers round the eye, Nymphicus and the Cacatuinae possess crests, Deroptyus broad erectile nape-plumes. Bare foreheads, cheeks or orbits, of a red, pink, blue, yellow, black, grey, or white hue are found in Microglossus, Cacatua, Licmetis, Anodorhynchus, Cyanopsittacus, Ara, Poeocephalus, Psittacus, Coracopsis, and Dasyptilus; while powder-down patches or tufts occur on the neck, shoulders, and sides of the Cacatuinae, Psittacus, and Chrysotis. The length varies from some thirty inches in the Great Black Cockatoo (Microglossus) to about three in the diminutive Nasiterna pygmaea. The name Macaw is applied to Ara and its nearest allies, Love-bird to Agapornis and Psittacula, Parakeet to Platycercus and Palaeornis, Lorikeet to Loriculus, Charmosyna, and Coriphilus, Lory to Eclectus, Trichoglossus, Lorius, Chalcopsittacus, and Eos, King Lory to Aprosmictus.
Parrots usually feed and roost in company, though in Eclectus the habits are said to be more solitary; the males are, however, monogamous, each courting a single female, which twitters and rolls the head from side to side when love-making. The haunts include wooded districts, grassy plains, or even rocky hills and sandy flats; 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. Loriculus, when sleeping, generally hangs by one foot. Little drink seems necessary, as the vegetable food is ordinarily succulent; plantains, papaw-apples, figs, and tamarinds being varied by flowers, buds, leaves, hard palm-nuts, and fruits of Platanus, Casuarina, Banksia, Cactus, or Capsicum. Grass-Parakeets and their nearest allies subsist almost entirely on grass-seeds and grain, Licmetis and some other Cockatoos dig for tubers and bulbs, Calyptorhynchus and Nestor search the bark of trees for insects, while the latter and the Loriinae suck honey from the flowers of Phormium and Eucalyptus. Nestor notabilis, the New Zealand Kea, eats the flesh of living sheep, an acquired taste as remarkable as it is destructive. Parrots alone among Birds habitually manipulate their food in their claws, these claws, moreover, greatly aiding them to creep about the branches or to cling to the mouth of their breeding-holes. The usual cry is harsh and discordant, Lories and Macaws making an especially deafening noise; but Cockatoos, besides their scream, utter a softer sound, Loriculus has a monosyllabic note, Nymphicus and Melopsittacus quite a pretty warble. The female hisses when caught upon her eggs, and in captivity many forms talk and whistle. Holes in trees, crevices in cliffs or caves, cavities under stones or roots, and even shallow depressions in the soil, seldom with any bedding, serve for a nest; the spherical or somewhat pointed eggs, which are often deposited in confinement, being dull white, occasionally with a greenish tinge or brownish incubation-stains. The larger species usually lay one, two, or three, some of the smaller as many as twelve, the size varying greatly (pp. [367], [372]). Palaeornis habitually cuts a circular hole in rotten trees, and even bores to a depth of three feet; Pezoporus is said to make a mass of grass and rushes in tussocks, Myiopsittacus monachus a globular fabric with a side entrance; Nasiterna, Psephotus, Cyanolyseus, and Conurus will breed in holes in ants' nests or steep banks. The male occasionally assists in incubation, and two broods may be reared in a season. Small or large colonies are sometimes formed, and in both the Old and New Worlds large flocks seriously damage ripe maize and corn, or oranges and other fruits. The birds are often killed for eating, and their feathers used for ornament; for caging, they are limed, captured with decoys, or taken from the nest.
The headquarters of Parrots are in the Australian Region and the Malay countries, which possess a majority of the genera and peculiar species; next follows the Neotropical Region; the Indian and Ethiopian are comparatively poor; the Palaearctic possesses no existing representative; and the Nearctic but one, Conurus carolinensis, which early in this century extended northwards to the Great Lakes, but now only inhabits Florida, Arkansas, and Indian Territory. Cyanolyseus patagonus and Microsittace ferruginea occur at the Straits of Magellan, Poeocephalus robustus at the extreme south of Africa, Cyanorhamphus erythrotis in Macquarie Island; while many forms occupy most limited areas, especially in the West Indies and the Pacific. Of Coracopsis mascarinus of Réunion, Nestor productus of Phillip Island, and N. norfolcensis of Norfolk Island, only a few specimens exist, and those in collections; Palaeornis exsul of Rodriguez and Conurus pertinax of St. Thomas in the West Indies are verging upon extinction. A Macaw seems to have disappeared from Jamaica, and six Parrots from Guadeloupe and Martinique.
The sexes of all the species described below are alike, unless otherwise stated, the young being commonly duller.
Fig. 73.–Kakapo. Stringops habroptilus. × ⅕. (From Nature.)
Fam. III. Psittacidae.–Sub-fam. 1. Stringopinae.–Stringops habroptilus, the Kakapo or Tarapo of New Zealand, has sap-green upper parts, with yellow middles to the feathers and transverse brown markings; yellower lower surface; and browner cheeks, remiges, and rectrices. The soft plumage, the disc of feathers round the eye, and the nocturnal habits have given this bird the name Owl-Parrot. During the day it usually hides in holes near the ground, emerging towards evening to feed greedily on mosses, bracken, seeds, berries, such as those of Coriaria sarmentosa, and even lizards; while the companies make tracks a foot or more wide across the herbage. The Kakapo inhabits alpine districts or open forests; it climbs well and walks swiftly, but has such limited powers of flight that the natives hunt it on foot by torch-light, or with dogs, which are often seriously wounded by the powerful bill. The note is a croak, grunt, or shriek. Two or three eggs, as large as those of a pullet, are deposited in burrows under tree-roots or rocks, without any nest. It makes a tame and playful pet.[[222]]
Sub-fam. 2. Psittacinae.–Of this group the nocturnal Geopsittacus occidentalis of South and West Australia, and Pezoporus formosus of the same countries and Tasmania, somewhat resemble Stringops in general coloration. The latter, which has an orange frontal band, rarely resorts to trees, but crouches, skulks, or trusts to its great running powers, flying at most only some hundred yards, with a rapid twisting motion. It haunts sandy plains or marshy districts, laying two or three eggs on a bedding of grass and rushes in long tussocks of herbage.
Our common cage-bird, Melopsittacus undulatus, the Australian Grass-Parakeet or Budgerigar, has a yellow head, with three black cheek-spots surmounted by a blue patch; the nape, back, and wing-coverts are yellow with black transverse markings, the remiges brown with green outer webs and yellow margins, the rump and under parts green, the two long median rectrices blue, the lateral tail-feathers green banded with yellow. These graceful and lively little birds are partly terrestrial, often flocking in thousands to feed upon the seeds of grasses, while they sit motionless during the heat among the foliage. The flight is quick and direct; the note shrill, or warbling; the conduct of individuals towards one another amicably quarrelsome. From three to six eggs are deposited in hollow branches, with no nest. The name Grass-Parakeet is shared with Neophema of Southern Australia and Tasmania, distinguished by a blue frontal band sometimes extending around the eyes. N. petrophila, the Rock-Parakeet, breeds in holes in steep cliffs near water, N. pulchella also shewing a liking for rocks. Porphyrocephalus spurius of West Australia has a maroon crown and nape, green upper parts, black remiges with blue bases and primary coverts, and blue lower surface with scarlet and yellow vent. The flight is swift, the note clucking.
Of the beautiful Australian genus Platycercus, P. elegans, also found in Norfolk Island, may serve as an example: it is crimson-red with black on the dorsal feathers; the cheeks, bend of the wing, primary-coverts, outer webs of quills and the tail being blue. The dozen species haunt grassy hills, feed upon seeds, berries, insects and their larvae, run easily, take short flights, rise with outspread tail, and lay from four to seven eggs in holes in trees without a nest. P. eximius is the Roselle Parakeet of dealers.