GREEN PARROTS 19 



In the same way, when a flock of green parrots 

 invades a wheat field, each bird does not confine its 

 depredations to one blade of corn until it is devoured. 

 That would be very poor sport. Every man, woman, 

 and child parrot selects a grain-laden stalk and, having 

 enjoyed one small beakful, bites off the head, and then, 

 with a wicked chuckle, proceeds to mete out similar 

 treatment to another head of corn. Needless to say, 

 the villager is no more fond of the parrot than the forest 

 officer is of the villager. 



The diet of green parrots is by no means confined to 

 wheat. No grain crop comes amiss to the bird, and, if 

 there be no corn in Egypt, they make merry among the 

 fruit trees. Green parrots are, however, strict vege- 

 tarians. I would earnestly commend this fact to those 

 good people who attribute all sin in this world to the 

 eating of meat. Further, green parrots are teetotalers. 

 This should be borne in mind by those who declare that 

 the origin of all crime is to be found in strong drink. 

 Finally, no green parrot is blessed with so much as two 

 coppers to rub against one another. Let those who 

 assert that money is the root of all evil consider this 

 fact. Parrots are vegetarians, teetotalers, and care not 

 for filthy lucre, yet they are steeped in iniquity from 

 birth to death, from egg to exit. But, we may safely 

 leave these momentous facts to moral philosophers and 

 return to the parrot's bump of destructiveness. It is 

 the large development of this appendage which contri- 

 butes so largely to the bird's enjoyment of life. 



That green parrots do derive an exceptionally large 

 amount of enjoyment from existence, no one, who has 



