_Psittacus leucocephalus._
_Psittacus leucocephalus_, +Linn.+—Pl. Enl. 549.
_Psittacus collarius_, (young?) Ibid.
[77] Length 13¹⁄₂ inches, expanse 22³⁄₄, flexure 7¹⁄₄, tail 4²⁄₁₀,
rictus 1, tarsus ⁸⁄₁₀, middle toe 1⁶⁄₁₀. Irides dark hazel; cere
and eyelids greyish-white. Sexes exactly alike.
The Yellow-bill is less common than either of the only two preceding,
but its habits are the same. The same fruits supply it with food, but
in addition, it divides the oranges, to procure the pips, and even cuts
the acrid cashew-nut, to extract the kernel; which the others will not
do.
The present and the preceding species build in holes in lofty trees;
often a hollow bread-nut is chosen, and often the capacious and
comfortable cavity chiselled out by the Woodpecker. Four eggs are
usually laid; and when the green feathers begin to clothe the callow
heads of the promising family, they are too often taken by some daring
youth, who having watched the parent to her hole, climbs the giddy
elevation. He feeds the young with ripe plantain or banana, till they
approach maturity, and their appetites can digest plainer food; for
when grown they will eat almost anything.
All the three species learn to speak, but the Parroquet is barely
intelligible; the Black-bill is the most docile, but the beauty and
superior size of the Yellow-bill causes it to be preferred for the
cage. One in full plumage, and able to articulate with distinctness,
usually fetches about twenty shillings in the towns.
Robinson, in enumerating the Jamaican _Psittacidæ_, distinguishing them
from introduced specimens, mentions in addition to those I have given,
“the Mountain Parroquet.” (MSS. ii. 88.)
+Fam.+—PICIDÆ.—(_The Woodpeckers._)