TTIE PARROTS. 339 



(h'fn'fus, or dust, of the worin-eaten wood, and of dr}' leaves in the second. The eggs are 

 not numerous ; usually only three or four each time ; but there arc broods several times 

 in the year. The yonng when born are totally naked ; and the head is so large, that 

 the body seems to be merely an ai^pendage to it. Thcj' remain some time without 

 having sufficient strength to move it. The}- are subsequently covered with down, but ai-e 

 not completely invested with 'feathers for two or three months. They remain with their 

 parents till after the first moulting, and then leave them for the purpose of pairing. 

 The eggs are ovoid, short, as thick at one end as the other ; and those which are 

 knoA\Ti are of a white colour. Some of them ai'o nearty equal in size to those of a 

 pigeon. 



It was for a long time supposed that the increase of these birds could tal<c i)laco onlj' 

 in their native country. Many parrots, however, were born in Europe so far back as 

 1740 and 1741. In 1801, some Amazon parrots were born at Eonic. M. Lamouroux 

 has given us considerable details respecting the broods of two blue maccaws that were at 

 Caen some years ago. In four years and a half, these birds laid sixty-two eggs in 

 nineteen broods. Of this number, twenty-five eggs produced young ones, of which ten 

 only died. The others lived, and became perfectly accustomed to the climate. They 

 laid eggs at all seasons ; and the broods became more frequent and more productive in 

 the course of time, and in the end much fewer were lost. 



The number of the eggs in the nest used to vary, six having been together at a time ; 

 and these maccaws were seen to bring iip four J'omig ones at once. These eggs took from 

 twenty to twenty-five days to be hatched, like those of our common hens. Their form 

 was that of a pear, a little flattened, and their length equal to that of a pigeon's egg. It 

 was only between the fifteenth and five and twentieth day that the young ones became 

 covered with a very thick down, soft, and of a whitish slatey gray. The feathers did 

 not begin to make their appearance until towards the thirtieth day, and took two months 

 to acquire their full growth. It v.-as twelve before the young arrived at the state of their 

 parents, but their plumage had all its beauty from six months old. At three months old 

 they abandoned the nest, and could cat alone ; up to this period they had been fed by 

 the father and mother, who disgorged the food from the bill in the same raanner as the 

 pigeons do. 



It is probable that the success of this education was owing to the care which was 

 taken in providing these birds with a suitable nest. This consisted of a small barrel, 

 pierced towards the third of its height with a hole of about six inches in diameter, and the 

 bottom of whicJi contained a bed of sawdust thi'co inches thick, on which the eggs were 

 laid and hatched. Since the time now referred to. Collared parrakeets of Senegal, and 

 Pavonian parrakeets, have been hatched in Paris, in hollows made in large billets of wood, 

 where the parent-birds had fixed their nests. 



Parrots, parrakeets, and other birds of the same family, which are imported into Europe, 

 are generally taken young in the nest, and brought up in their native country. Some are 

 taken adult ; they are caught when inebriated by eating the seed of the cotton-tree, 

 which the}' are very subject to become ; or they arc brouglit down by arrows, which, 

 having a button on the end, stun without killing them. M. D'Azara states, that the 

 natives of Paraguay take them in a manner which appears very singular, if not incre- 

 dible. They attach one or two pieces of wood to a tree frequented by these birds for the 

 sake of its friut. They put a stick or two across from these pieces of wood as far as the 

 tree, and construct with palm-leaves a sort of cabin, sufficiently large to conceal the 

 fowler. He has with him a tame parrot, which by its cries attracts the wild ones of the 

 forest, and the last never fail to come at the voice of the prisoner. The hunter, without 

 loss of time, passes romid their necks a running knot, attached to the end of a long 

 wand, which he moves from within his cabin. If he has five or six of these wands, he 



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