138 



STERILITY FROM 



Chap. XVIIl. 



lusessorial species are enumerated which had not bred, and of 

 these only four were known to have coupled. 



Parrots are singularly long-lived birds ; and Humboldt mentions 

 the curious fact of a parrot in South America, which spoke the 

 language of an extinct Indian tribe, so that this bird preserved 

 the sole relic of a lost language. Even in this country there is 

 reason to believe ^^ that parrots have lived to the age of nearly 

 one hundred years ; yet they breed so rarely, though many have been 

 kept in Europe, that the event has been thought worth recording 

 in the gravest publications.'*^ Nevertheless, when Mr. Buxton 

 turned out a large number of parrots in Norfolk, three pairs bred 

 and reared ten young birds in the course of two seasons ,• and this 

 success may be attributed to their free life.'*^ According to Bechstein ** 

 the African Fsittacus erithacus breeds oftener than any other species 

 in Germany : the P. macoa occasionally lays fertile eggs, but rarely 

 succeeds in hatching them; this bird, however, has the instinct 

 of incubation sometimes so strongly developed, that it will hatch 

 the eggs of fowls or pigeons. In the Zoological Gardens and in 

 the old Surrey Gardens some few species have coupled, but, with 

 the exception of three species of parrakeets, none have bred. It 

 is a much more remarkable fact that in Guiana parrots of two 

 kinds, as I am informed by Sir E. Schomburgk, are often taken 

 from the nests by the Indians and reared in large numbers ; they 

 are so tame that they fly freely about the houses, and come when 

 called to be fed, like pigeons ; yet he has never heard of a single 

 instance of their breeding.'*^ In Jamaica, a resident naturalist, 

 Mr. K. Hill,*^ says, "no birds more readily submit to human 

 " dependence than the parrot- tribe, but no instance of a parrot 

 " breeding in this tame life has been known yet." Mr. Hill specifies 

 a number of other native birds kept tame in the West Indies, which 

 never breed in this state. 



The great pigeon family offers a striking contrast with the parrots : 

 in the nine-year Report thirteen species are recorded as having 

 bred, and, what is more noticeable, only two were seen to couple 

 without any result. Since the above date every annual Report 

 gives many cases of various pigeons breeding. The two magnificent 

 crowned pigeons (Go^<ra coronata and vic^or/ce) produced hybrids; 



** Loudon's ' !Mag. of Nat. History,' 

 vol. xix., 1836, p. 347. 



<2 ' Memoires du Museum d'Hist. 

 Nat.,' torn. X. p. 314: five cases of 

 parrots breeding in France are here 

 recorded. See also ' Report Brit. 

 Assoc. Zoolog.,' 1843. 



•'^ ' Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' 

 Nov. 1868, p. 311. 



** ' Stubenvogel,' s. 105, 83. 



♦' Dr. Hancock remarks (' Charles- 



worth's Mag. of Nat. Hist.' vol. 

 ii., 1838, p. 492), "it is singular 

 that, amongst the numerous useful 

 birds that are indigenous to Guiana, 

 none are found to propagate among 

 the Indians ; yet the common fowl is 

 reared in abundance throughout the 

 country." 



4« 'A Week at Pert Royal,' 1855, 

 p. 7. 



