In Surinam there are also some beautiful paroquets, which are a species of parrots, but smaller though not less common; the finest of these is of the size of a very small pigeon; they are of a lively green on the back and tail, but the head and neck are auburn, the feathers on the last being edged with a gold colour, which gives them the appearance of rich scollops or scales: the breast is of a leaden hue, the belly lilac, the wings tipped with orange and azure, and the bill of a very dark blue; the eyes are the colour of fire, and the feet quite black. The other species are perfectly green, with a white bill, and a crimson spot on the head; these make an agreeable chattering, but are not so easily domesticated as the former. I was presented this evening by a soldier with a bird of a quite different kind, which he had actually caught with his hands. This was no other than the annamoe, or Surinam partridge, and a finer creature I never saw: it was of the size of a large duck, extremely fat, and of a dark brown colour on the back and wings, and on the top of the head, the under part of which, the breast, the belly, and the thighs, were of a fine cream-colour, intermixed with orange feathers and very small transverse black bars. The body was exactly the shape of an egg, it had no tail, the neck was long, the bill short, but very sharp-pointed, and a little curved; the eyes were bright, and as black as jet; the legs short, of the colour of vermilion, with three small toes on each foot. This bird, it is said, runs with amazing swiftness, hiding itself amongst the grass and weeds, but flies very heavily on account of its plumpness, which was the cause of its being thus overtaken by the marine. We had it roasted, and indeed nothing could be more delicious. As I took a correct drawing of it, I refer the reader to the annexed plate; where he may also see the parrot of South America, as described above, besides a few curious nests, of which I have given an account in Vol. I. p. 375, but where I had no opportunity of placing them; and which, besides their curiosity, may serve to shew how much the public are imposed upon; when, in Goldsmith’s Animated Nature, Vol. V. p. 253, that author asserts, that they are built on the banana and plantain trees, where he also describes the monkies, and numbers of large serpents as assembling. All this I here think it my duty to pronounce erroneous, as I consider it would be unpardonable in me to let such absurdities pass by unnoticed.