Note 541 — PRIMO VIAGGIO INTORNO AL MONDO

The generic name for “parrot” is loony. Its correct Malay form is noyras (Crawfurd, Dictionary, p. 221, nuri and Javanese nori). The corruption nori began to be common in the seventeenth century. (See Linschoten’s Voyage, Hakluyt Society edition, i, p. 307). Nicolò de’Conti says that there are three species of parrots in Banda. The first two species are both known by the name of nori, “bright,” and are about the size of doves, one species having red feathers and a saffron-colored beak and the other being of various colors. The third species are white and as large as the common domestic fowl, and are called cachi, “better.” They imitate human speech better than the others. Bellemo says that the lori [i.e., nori] are parrots with red feathers, giachi those which speak more easily, while the white ones cockatoos which do not speak (Mosto, p. 100, note 3).