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LOVE BIRD.

Tue love birds form part of a group of most beautiful
little parrakeets—the most. diminutive of their race,
with short rounded tails: they are natives of the torrid
zone. The common love bird from Guinea is _ well
known, being often kept in cages in pairs; it is very
interesting to witness the attention which a pair of these
birds pay to each other; caressing each other, arranging
each other’s plumage, and by numberless little acts of
kindness evidencing their mutual attachment. They
usually sleep suspended with the head downwards, cling-
ing by one foot alone.

Parrots are, for the most part tropical birds, and in
their native climates are the most numerous of the
feathered tribes. Montgomery says,

“The parrots swung like blossoms on the trees.”

They are described as flying in large flocks in South
America, with loud screams, and all kinds of evolutions
in the air: some of them are shot and eaten by travellers.
Prince Maximilian describes the cold season as causing
the forest birds to come down in great numbers from
the interior to the coast of Brazil, and thus enabling
the hunters to shoot abundance of parrots for food. ‘The
flesh of the parrot,” observes the prince, “makes very
strong broth, but I nowhere found any confirmation of
what Southey says, that it is used in medicine.”

The flight of the parrots is rapid, elegant, and vigorous,
capable of being long sustained, and many of the species