Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/134

 124: PAROS PARK doing mischief to the crops ; they are all do- cile, imitative, and handsome. The grass paro- quets (melopaittacua, Gould) of Australia are remarkable not only for the beauty of their plumage but for their pleasing song ; the bill is very short and high, the tail graduated and cu- neiform, the tarsi long, and the toes slender. They pass most of their time on the ground, migrating with rapid flight from place to place in large flocks in search of grass and other seeds ; during the heat of the day they remain concealed in lofty trees ; they are often kept in cages, where their beauty, song, and gentle and loving habits make them pleasing pets. In the allied genus nanodes (Vig. and Horsf.) or euphema (Wagl.), also Australian, are about half a dozen elegant little grass paroquets, with habits like those of the preceding genus. The genus trichoglossus (Vig. and Horsf.), which seems to connect this subfamily with the lories, hence called "lorikeets," takes the place in Australia of the Indian lories, and con- tains some of the most beautiful of the parrot family; the prevailing color of the plumage is green, varied with scarlet, blue, and yel- low; the tail is elongated and graduated, and the wings are narrow and pointed ; the bill is slender and weak, but arched and hooked ; the tarsi short and robust, and the strong and broad toes armed with sharp claws ; t;he generic name is derived from the structure of the tongue, which has near the tip a pencil or brush of hair-like bristles, especially adapted for pro- curing the nectar of flowers, which forms their principal food; they also suck the juices of soft fruits, but do not attempt the hard seeds of which most parrots are fond. The blue- bellied paroquet (T. multicolor, Vig. and Horsf.) is about 13 in. long, of which the tail is 6 ; the head and throat are bluish purple, with a nuchal collar of bright green; breast vermilion red, passing on the sides into rich yellow ; abdomen deep purple in the middle, vermilion tipped with green on the sides; under tail coverts red, yellow, and green, and under wing coverts red ; upper parts grass-green, varied with ver- milion and yellow on the back of the neck ; tail green in the middle, with more or less yel- low on the sides. They live in large flocks, moving from place to place in search of the newly expanded flowers of the gum trees ; they are sometimes caged, but do not live long in confinement from the difficulty of supplying them with proper food. PAROS, or Paro, an island of Greece, in the Archipelago, one of the Cyclades, separated from Naxos or Naxia on the east by a strait 5 m. wide ; length N. E. and S. W. 14 m., greatest breadth 11 m.; area, 80 sq. m.; pop. about 6,000. Its highest point, Mount St. Elias, is 2,530 ft. above the sea. There are several har- bors, Parikia on the west, St. Maria, Marmora, and Trio on the east, and Naussa on the north, the best in the Archipelago. There are also sev- eral villages, of which the principal is Parikia, on the site of the ancient Paros. The country, though hilly, is fertile, and produces principally olives and cotton, and also corn, wine, fruit, and legumes. In former times it was cele- brated for its marble, which was remarkably white and durable, and was considered second only to that 6f Pentelicus. The principal quar- ries were in Mount Marpessa. Paros, accord- ing to tradition, was first inhabited by Cretans and Arcadians, and obtained its name from Parus, a son of the Arcadian Parrhasius. It was early colonized by the lonians, and by means of its maritime trade became so pros- perous that it colonized Thasos, Parium on the Propontis, and Pharus on the Illyrian coast. Having submitted to the Persians after the battle of Marathon (490 B. C.), it was enabled to defy Miltiades, and after the sea fight off Sa- lamis (480) secured its safety by paying a fine to Themistocles. Subsequently it fell into the power of Athens, along with the other islands of the ./Egean. In the 13th century it became subject to Venice, constituting for a time a portion of the dukedom of Naxos ; but subse- quently it came into the possession of the Vene- tian family of Venier, and in the 16th century was taken by the pirate Barbarossa. Toward the close of the 18th it became a naval station for the Russian fleet, and it now belongs to the Greek nomarchy of the Cyclades. PAROTID GLAND. See SALIVAEY GLANDS. PARR, Catharine. See CATHABINE PAKE. PARR, Samuel, an English author, born at Harrow-on-the-Hill, Jan. 15, 1747, died March 6, 1825. He entered the university of Cam- bridge in 1765, but the death of his father obliged him to accept in 1767 the post of first assistant master of Harrow school, and he re- mained there five years, when he opened a private school at Stanmore. In 1777 he be- came master of the school at Colchester, and was ordained priest, receiving the curacies of Hythe and Trinity church. In the following year he was appointed master of Norwich school. His first noteworthy publication was his "Discourse on Education, and' on the Plans pursued in Charity Schools " (1785). In 1786 he removed to Hatton in Warwickshire, where he held a perpetual curacy, and here he passed the remainder of his life, engaged in literary pursuits, the care of his parish, and the instruc- tion of children. He was arrogant and quar- relsome, and an ardent whig at a time when whiggism was very unpopular with the ruling classes. He is said to have surpassed in con- versational powers all his contemporaries ex- cept Dr. Johnson. In 1787 he published an edition of Bellendenus de Statu, with a cele j brated political preface in Ciceronian Latin. His other writings comprise a controversy with Dr. White, whom he accused of plagiarism in his " Bampton Lectures " (1790) ; papers con- nected with the Birmingham riots of 1791 ; a controversy with Dr. Charles Combe in 1795 ; one with Godwin and others occasioned by Parr's Spital sermon in 1800; and "Charac- ters of the late Charles James Fox" (1809).