The fourth is named Loriana, from a group of parrots generally known by the name of Lories, natives of India and its islands. It also contains the numerous members of the genus Trichoglossus, Vigors, and several other generic forms belonging to Australia, all of which are distinguished from the rest of the Psittacidae by their comparatively slender bill and papillose tongue. This division beautifully represents the Tenuirostres, and is the Grallatorial group of the Psittacidae.

The fifth is that of the Broad-tails, or sub-family Platycercina, composed of the beautiful genus Pla-tycercus, Vigors, and of the other ground or slender-legged parrots of Australia. In it we are also inclined to place the black parrots of Madagascar, known by the name of Vasa. This division is considered as analogous to the fissirostral tribe of the Insessores.

By Button, and other naturalists of an early date, the geographical distribution of the parrots was sup-posed to be confined to the sultry climates within the Tropics. The discoveries made during the various scientific voyages which have since explored the globe, and the keen research that of late years has been instituted in pursuit of objects of natural history, have, however, shewn that it is much wider in extent, particularly in the southern hemisphere, where species have been found in latitudes as high as 50°, examples having been discovered and brought from the Straits of Magellan. In the northern hemisphere, the limit appears to be more restricted, as the Carolina parrakeet of North America, and some few African species, are seldom seen beyond the 32d or 33d degrees. The Equatorial Regions must, however, be considered the metropolis of the family, as it is in them that the greatest variety of genera are met with, the species which inhabit the higher or colder latitudes, though numerous, belonging to a very limited number of generic forms. In the majority of this family, we find a plumage which, for richness and variety of colour, yields to few of the feathered race; and though, like the tulip among flowers, it may by some be thought gaudy, and composed of colours too violently and abruptly contrasted to give that satisfaction to the eye which a more chastened, or rather a less abrupt, intermixture of tints is wont to produce, still we think no one can examine or look at some of the gorgeously decked Maccaws, the splendid and effulgent Lories, or the diversified tints of the Australian Parrakeets, without acknowledging them to be among the most beautiful and striking of the feathered race.

In the first, second, and fifth subfamilies, the ground or prevailing colour is green, generally of a lively tint, and varying from grass to sap and emerald-green, as expressed in Syme's Nomenclature of Colours. Upon this groundwork, patches of almost every known or possible hue are to be found in one or other of the species. In the subfamily Plyctolophnia alone we meet with a more uniform and plain attire, the true cockatoos being white, or white tinged more or less with rosy red or pale yellow. The other forms in this group are black or greenish-black, sometimes relieved with large masses of red or yellow upon the tail. In texture the plumage may be called firm, close, and adpressed, in some species even assuming a scaled or titled appearance. The general form of the Psittacidae may be stated as short, strong, and compact, but as deficient in elegance, in the short and even-tailed species, in which the great bulk of the head and bill seems disproportioned to the rest of the body. In the parrakeets, this disproportion is done away with, or at least in a great degree counteracted by the elongation of the tail, and many of them exhibit an elegance of form and gracefulness of carriage surpassed by few other birds, The formation of the feet, which are zygodactile, or with the toes placed two forwards and two backwards, and, in all but the few aberrant species previously adverted to, expressly adapted and formed for firm prehension and climbing, evidently points to woods and forests as the appropriate and natural habitats of the race. It is accordingly in those regions where the trees are clothed in perpetual verdure, and where a constant and never failing succession of fruits and seeds (the common food and support of the tribe) can always be procured, that the parrots are found in the greatest numbers and profusion. Thus the recesses of the interminable forests of South America are enlivened by the presence of the superb Maccaws, and the nearly allied species of the genus Psittacara; those of India and its islands by the elegantly-shaped members of the genus Palaeornis, and the scarlet-clothed Lories; while those of Australia resound with the harsh voice of the Cockatoos, and the shriller screams of the nectivorous Trichoglossi, and broad-tailed Parrakeets or Platycerci. In these their natural situations, their movements are marked by an ease and gracefulness we can never see exhibited in a state of confinement. They are represented as climbing about the branches in every direction, and as suspending themselves from them in every possible attitude ; in all which movements they are greatly assisted by their hooked and powerful bill, which is used, like the foot, as an organ of prehension and support. The pointed and ample wing, which we perceive to prevail among the parrots, indicates a corresponding power of flight ; and accordingly we learn from those who have enjoyed the enviable opportunity of seeing and studying them in their native wilds, that it is rapid, elegant, and vigorous, capable of being long sustained, and that many of the species are in the habit of describing circles and other aerial evolutions, previous to their alighting upon the trees which contain their food. Thus Au-dubon, in his account of the Carolina Parrakeet, says, "Their flight is rapid, straight, and continued through the forests, or over fields and rivers, and is accompanied by inclinations of the body, which enable the observer to see alternately their upper and under parts. They deviate from a direct course only when impediments occur, such as trunks of trees or houses, in which case they glance aside in a very graceful manner, as much as may be necessary. A general cry is kept up by the party, and it is seldom that one of these birds is on wing for ever so short a space, without uttering its cry. On reaching a spot which affords a supply of food, instead of alighting at once, as many birds do, the parakeets take a good survey of the neighbourhood, passing over it in circles of great extent, first above the trees, and then gradually lowering, until they almost touch the ground, when, suddenly reascending, they all settle on the tree that bears the fruit of which they are in quest, or on one close to the field in which they expect to regale themselves."