are little more than filaments, except at the point and near the root. This bird's feathers have not only been the favourite ornament of the South American ladies for a long time, but have had also the honour of decorating the heads of our fair countrywomen.

Is about the size of the jay. His bill is black, sharp, and somewhat hooked. The head is of a dirty green, mingled with blue; of which colour is also the throat, with white lines in the middle of each feather; the breast and belly are of a pale blue, like those of a pigeon; the middle of the back, between the shoulders, is red; the rump, and less coverts of the wings, are of a lovely blue; the feet are short, and, like those of a dove, of a dirty yellow colour.

The Roller is wilder than the jay, and frequents the thickest woods; it builds its nest chiefly on birch trees. Buffon says it is a bird of passage, and migrates in the months of May and September. In those countries where it is common (but so rare is it in this country that it can hardly be called a British bird), it is said to fly in large flocks in the autumn, and is

frequently seen in cultivated grounds, with Rooks and other birds, searching for worms, small seeds, roots, &c.; it likewise feeds on berries, caterpillars, and insects, and is said, in cases of necessity, to eat young frogs, and even carrion.

HAD Nature united in the same creature the shape of man, as we perceive it in some of the largest monkeys and apes; the intelligence of the elephant, who is so soon acquainted with the language of his keeper; and the faculty of speech, which she has bestowed on the Parrot; we should have been at a loss to decide, whether the curious animal were not one of a family with the human species; but her wisdom directed the operation of classing the animals in a different way: and she separated her gifts, allowing the human speech to a bird; the intelligence to a being, which, in shape, does not in the least resemble man; and refusing both to the brute that in outward appearance approaches the most to the human form. The tongue

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of the Parrot is not unlike a black soft bean, and fills so completely the capacity of his beak, that the bird can easily modulate sounds and articulate words; the beak is composed of two pieces, both moveable, which is a peculiarity belonging exclusively, it appears, to this class of creatures. The colour of the Parrot varies with the species; and Nature seems to have indulged in her most fanciful mixture of green, red, yellow, and blue, upon these birds. The bill of the Parrot is strongly hooked, and assists him in climbing, catching hold of the boughs of the trees with it, and then drawing his legs upwards; then again advancing his beak, and afterwards his feet, for his legs are not adapted for hopping from bough to bough, as other birds do. Several stories are told of the sagacity of this bird, and of the aptitude of his interrogatories and answers, but they have been no doubt the effect of chance.

Dr. Goldsmith says that a Parrot, belonging to King Henry the Seventh, having been kept in a room next the Thames, in his palace of Westminster, had learned to repeat many sentences from the boatmen and passengers. One day sporting on its perch, it unluckily fell into the water. The bird had no sooner discovered its situation, than it called out aloud, "A boat! twenty pounds for a boat!" A waterman, happening to be near the place where the Parrot was floating, immediately took it up, and restored it to the king; demanding, as the bird was a favourite, that he should be paid the reward the bird had called out. This was refused, but it was agreed that, as the Parrot had offered a reward, the man should again refer to its determination for the sum he was to receive. "Give the knave a groat," the bird screamed aloud, the instant the reference was made.

Parrots not only imitate discourse, but also mimic gestures and actions. Scaliger saw one that performed the dance of the Savoyards, at the same time that it

repeated their song. This bird was fond of hearing a person sing; and when he saw him dance, he also tried to caper, but with the worst grace imaginable, holding in his toes, and tumbling back in a most clumsy manner.

Willoughby tells us of a Parrot, which, when a person said to it, "Laugh, Poll, laugh," laughed accordingly, and the instant after screamed out, "What a fool to make me laugh!" Another, which had grown old with its master, shared with him the infirmities of age. Being accustomed to hear scarcely any thing but the words, "I am sick;" when a person asked it, "How do you do, Poll?” “I am sick," it replied in a doleful tone, stretching itself along, “I am sick.”

Parrots are very numerous in the East and West Indies, where they assemble in companies, like rooks, and build in the hollows of trees. The female lays two or three eggs, marked with little specks, like those of the partridge. They never breed in our climates, and yet live here to a great age. They feed entirely upon vegetables, yet, when tame, they take out of the mouth of their master or mistress any kind of chewed meat, and chiefly eggs, of which they seem particularly fond. They not only articulate words, but also sing verses of songs; and their memory is astonishing. They bite or pinch very hard, and some of them possess so much strength in their beak, that they could easily cut a man's finger in two, through the bone. The Parrot is sensible of attachment, as well as of revenge; and if they show, in their mimic attitudes, great pleasure at the sight of their feeders, they also fly up with anger to the face of those who once have affronted or injured them.

Is the largest of the parrot kind, and painted with the finest colours Nature can bestow. The beak is uncommonly strong; and the tail proportionally longer than that of any parrots. His voice is fierce and tremulous, sometimes sounding like the laugh of an old man; and it seems to utter the word "Arara," which occasioned his going by that name in his native country. The Macaw of St. Domingo is of a fine red colour, except some blue and yellow feathers about the wings. The flesh of this bird is much esteemed as an article of food in that island.

When tame, it eats almost every article of human food. It is particularly fond of bread, beef, fried fish, pastry, and sugar. It cracks nuts with its bill, and picks the kernels out dexterously with its claws. It does not chew the soft fruits, but it sucks them by pressing its tongue against the upper part of the beak: and the harder sort of food, such as bread and pastry, it bruises or chews, by pressing the tip of the lower upper mandible. upon the most hollow part of the