104 Notes on Jungle and Other Wild Life. 



and remain in the vicinity and within range until all or most of 

 them are killed. 



Still another cowardly method of exterminating these 

 attractive birds is to place a tame decoy in a tree with a line 

 attached to his leg, the pulling upon which at intervals causes 

 the ca])tive bird to call out and thus attract passing pairs or 

 flocks. 



As recent agitation of the matter has resulted in the 

 enactment of protective laws by the various insular legislatures, 

 many of the disappearing parrots may be saved, but some of 

 them are already so reduced in numbers that it is doubtful 

 whether they will survive. 



Although the indigenous birds of Barbados are, like those 

 of Bermuda — another isolated, non-continental, island-- 

 comparatively numerous, yet they are divided among very few 

 species, of which there are only about seventeen in the former 

 colony. Nevertheless, some Barbadian races, like that curious 

 animal, the Sea Parrot {Pnffnnis aitdiiboni), is cjuite rare and 

 seems slated for extinction. 



1 must tell you about at least one of the interesting birds 

 of Barbados. The Sparrow (Pyrrliitlagra barbadensis), was 

 first named and properly described by an old friend — whose 

 IcdDours are over and who now dwells in Burton's City of 

 Surcease — Charles B. Cory, lately of the Field Museum. 

 Chicago. This charming little bird, with his dove-coloured 

 breast and darker, grey mantle, is a fearless and friendly, some 

 say impudent, bird, whose chief characteristic is that he invites 

 himself at mealtime, and daily and regularly, to such houses as 

 do not support a cat or other objectional deterrents. Flying 

 through the ever-open window, entirely unmindful of the human 

 beings within, he and his mate ]:)erch on the backs of chairs or 

 other article of furniture, and look about for something to eat. 

 The pair that attached themselves to our menage were inordin- 

 ately fond of sugar, and at tea-time took possession of the 

 sugar bowl by roosting on the rim of the same as soon as the 

 maid a]»])eared with the tray. One of the birds then l)obbed his 

 head into the sugar — not a very sanitary ]^erformance, you will 

 say — and with a dozen or so grains adhering to his beak, flew 

 to a nearby table, upon which he dislodged the sweet particles 



