Notes oil J iiiii^Ic and Other IVlld Life. 103 



f.ivourite food, and tlial wobljly, i^roi^gy state, from which he 

 did not recover until we liad reached more quiet waters. My 

 observation of them leads me to believe that, except when at 

 play, parrots strongly object to swaying branches and irregular 

 swinging cages; in their sober moments they seek the stiff 

 limbs of steady trees; and, as all naturalists know, they nest and 

 Oii'ten sleep, like woodpeckers, in holes scooped out of arboreal 

 trunks. Perhaps that is one explanation of the large mortality 

 among captive birds imported from Africa and America in small 

 cages and across stormy seas. 



Speaking of parrots, a good many West Indian islands 

 liave had, and some of them still have, varieties of these beautiful 

 and highly intelligent birds that are, in certain instances, 

 peculiar to the Antilles. Austin H. Clarke, who has written 

 much on the subject, tells us that the parrakeet, once abundant 

 in the hills of Barbados (I notice that the Rev. Grif^th Hughes, 

 writing in 1750, counts the " Parakite " among the native birds 

 of the island), has suffered the same fate as most of the other 

 West Indian parrots, ])arrakeets and macaws. Not only are 

 they unknown to any living native, but even tradition hardly 

 records their early existence. Worst of all, the memory of 

 barely a single species, a Cuban variety (Ava tricolor) is pre- 

 served as a museum specimen. It seems outrageous that these 

 lovely and sensitive animals should be treated by both natives 

 and (some) wliites as game birds, and that the edible quality 

 of the parrot should be partly responsible for his extermination. 

 Clarke also points out that their conversational powers and their 

 reputation as pets led to wholesale trafific in immature birds, and 

 their nesting places were so constantly watched that scarcely 

 any of the young were allowed to go free. Then, again, 

 parrots are particular about their food, and betray their presence 

 liy the litter of torn fruit on the ground about trees in which they 

 habitually feed. Once such a tree is discovered all the (potj 

 hunter has to do is to sit nearby and shoot the birds as they fly in. 



Another fatal and pathetic quality that leads to the easy 

 destruction of these s])ecies by their human enemies is the parrot's 

 devotion to his mate and to the flock of which the pair form an 

 essential unit. When a parrot is killed or wounded the others, 

 hitherto wild, wary and una])proachable. at once lose all fear 

 of the hunter in their solicitude for their unfortunate companion. 



