NATURAL HISTORY. 299 



of trees or about their cages, the Parrots invariably make great 

 use of their hooked bills in assisting themselves both in ascending 



c.) c * 



and descending. The crossbills have been observed to climb 

 much in the same way. 



The Parrots are said to be very long lived, some have 

 certainly been known to live upwards of eighty years in 

 captivity, and may be imagined to exceed that period in a wild 

 state. 



The MACAWS are natives of South America. The blue and 

 yellow Macaw inhabits Brazil, Guiana and Surinam, living 

 principally on the banks of rivers. Of one ot the Macaws, the 

 Carolina Parrot, or Parrakeet as Wilson calls it, the following 

 anecdote is told by that enterprising naturalist : 



" Having shot down a number, some of which were only 

 wounded, the whole flock swept repeatedly round their 

 prostrate companions, and again settled on a low tree, within 

 twenty yards of the spot where I stood. At each successive 

 discharge, though showers of them fell, yet the affection 

 of the survivors seemed rather to increase, for after a few 

 circuits round the place they again alighted near me, looking 

 down on their slaughtered companions with such manifest 

 smyptoms of sympathy and concern, as entirely disarmed 



me.' 



"Wilson also makes mention of a singular idea, that the brains 

 and intestines of the Carolina Parrot (which lives on cockle- 

 burs) are poisonous to cats. Why the brains should be so is 

 rather incomprehensible, although we can easily understand 

 that the Parrot might take some substance into its stomach 

 injurious to cats. Wilson tried the experiment after being 

 repeatedly disappointed of a patient, but comes to no conclusion 

 on the subject. 



" Having shut up a cat and her two kittens, the latter only 

 a few days old, in a room with the head, neck, and whole intes- 

 tines of the parrakeet, I found on the next morning the whole 

 eaten except a small part of the bill. The cat exhibited no 

 symptom of sickness, and at this moment, three days after the 

 experiment had been made, she and her kittens are in their 

 usual health. Still however the effect might have been different, 

 had the daily food of the bird been cockle-burs instead of Indian 



corn.' 



