at last in their own wings and
plumage. They choose their mates for colour as they choose their
foodstuffs. Hence all the larger and more gregarious parrots, in which
the need for concealment is less, tend to diversify the fundamental
green of their coats with crimson, yellow, or blue, which in some cases
take possession of the entire body. The largest kinds of all, like the
great blue and yellow or crimson macaws, are as gorgeous as Solomon in
all his glory: and they are also the species least afraid of enemies;
for in Brazil you may often see them wending their way homeward openly
in pairs every evening, with as little attempt at concealment as rooks
in England. In the Moluccas and New Guinea, says Mr. Wallace, white
cockatoos and gorgeous lories in crimson and blue are the very
commonest objects in the local fauna. Even the New Zealand owl-parrot,
however, still retains many traces of his original greenness, mixed
with the dirty brown and dingy yellow of his acquired nocturnal and
burrowing nature.

If fruit-eaters are fine, flower-haunters are magnificent. And the
brush-tongued lories, that search for nectar among the bells of Malayan
blossoms, are the brightest-coloured of all the parrot tribes. Indeed,
no group of birds, according to Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace (who ought to
know, if anybody does), exhibits within the same limited number of
types so extraordinary a diversity and richness of colouring as the
parrots. 'As a rule,' he says, 'parrots may be termed green birds, the
majority of the species having this colour as the basis of their
plumage, relieved by caps, gorgets, bands and wing-spots of other and
brighter hues. Yet this general green tint sometimes changes into light
or deep blue, as in some macaws; into pure yellow or rich orange, as in
some of the American macaw-parrots; into purple, grey or dove-colour,
as in some American, African, and Indian species; into the purest
crimson, as in some of the lories; into rosy-white and pure white, as
in the cockatoos; and into a deep purple, ashy or black, as in several
Papuan, Australian, and Mascarene species. There is in fact hardly a
single distinct and definable colour that cannot be fairly matched
among the 390 species of known parrots. Their habits, too, are such as
to bring them prominently before the eye. They usually feed in flocks;
they are noisy, and so attract attention; they love gardens, orchards,
and open sunny places; they wander about far in sear