The Natural History of Cage Birds: Their Management, Habits, Food, Diseases, Treatment, Breeding, and the Methods of Catching Them.Bechstein, Johann Matthäus
Science
The Natural History of Cage Birds: Their Management, Habits, Food, Diseases, Treatment, Breeding, and the Methods of Catching Them.
Bechstein, Johann Matthäus
Cage birds
This parrot comes from India, and is only prized for its beauty, for it
cannot learn to speak. It must be treated like the preceding species.
THE YELLOW PARROT.
Psittacus solstitialis, LINNÆUS; La Perruche jaune, BUFFON;
Der gelbe Sittich, BECHSTEIN.
The whole length of this bird is eleven inches and a half. The tail is
wedge-shaped, and the folded wings cover one-third of it. The beak and
feet are green. The throat, the naked membranes of the beak, and the
circle of the eyes, are light grey; the iris is yellow. The general
colour of the body is orange, with olive spots on the back and wing
coverts.
This parrot comes from Angola, and easily learns to speak. The food and
treatment must be the same as the preceding.
THE AMBOINA PARROT.
Psittacus Amboinensis, LINNÆUS; Le Lory Perruche tricolor,
BUFFON; Der Amboinische Sittich-Lory, BECHSTEIN.
This species somewhat resembles the Ceram lory, a variety of _Le Lori
Noir_ of Buffon (_Psittacus garrulus auroræ_, LINNÆUS); owing to this
resemblance the French also call it _l'Aurore_. Its length is sixteen
inches, of which the tail, which is round, measures half. The beak is
nine lines in length; there is no naked membrane, and the nostrils are
in front; the iris is of a golden hue. The head, the nape of the neck,
and all the lower part of the body, are the colour of vermilion. A ring
of sky blue, very indistinct, surrounds the neck; all the feathers on
the top of the body are of a beautiful green, with a fine edge of blue,
or some dark colour.
In the female, the head is green; the throat, the under part of the
neck, and the breast, are the same, but having a reddish tint. The small
tail-coverts are dark green, edged with red; the tail itself is tinged
with green. The beak is horn brown, with a reddish tint above and below.
OBSERVATIONS.--A pair of this beautiful species were sold to his
Highness the Duke of Meiningen as coming from Botany Bay, but they
are really natives of Amboina. Timid and wild, this bird has a sharp
whistle and a cry like "_gaick_," but cannot speak. The feathers are
so loose that they generally come off in the hand when touched; but
they grow again very quickly. It is kept and treated like the others.
THE PURPLE PARROT.
Psittacus Pennanti, LATHAM; La Purpure; Der Pennantsche
Sittich, BECHSTEIN.
In the male, which very much resembles the sparrow-hawk, the prevailing
colour is a reddish purple, from which it derives its name among
bird-sellers. The head and rump are dark crimson; the throat, as well as
the small outer wing-coverts, and the centre pen-feathers, are of a most
beautiful sky blue; all the under part of the body is bright crimson,
shading to bluish on the thighs. The tail is of a deep blue.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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