8 THE SPEAKING PARROTS. 



property, which descends from father to son. The feathers 

 of these birds formerly served for the decoration of their 

 chieftains, and in the present age they adorn the hats of our 

 ladies. Therefore, the feathers of the macaw, as well as the 

 birds themselves, form an important article of commerce. 



Many thousands of live parrots are imported annually, and 

 all find ready purchasers. In this bird trade, which has 

 increased so enormously, especially during the last century, 

 there is one very unpleasant side — the constantly prevailing 

 diseases and death of the imported parrots, notably of the 

 Grey Parrots, and also of many kinds of the smaller feathered 

 tribes. It must on no account be thought that this melan- 

 choly fact arises from any delicacy of the birds ; on the con- 

 trary, in spite of all the terrible severities and sufferings 

 which they must pass through, the greater number reach 

 here alive, and of those which have become sickly the 

 majority recover, live, and become perfectly healthy. In this 

 we surely find a proof of the astonishingly strong hold on 

 life with which most of these delicate-looking creatures are 

 endowed. 



I will detail more circumstantially this much-to-be-regretted 

 state of affairs. Mr. F. Connor writes from Brazil, in my 

 periodical. ''The Feathered World": ''The natives, Indians 

 and negroes of mixed race, bring the parrots in a miserable 

 condition to the seaports, feed them with fruit and rice, and 

 sell them to the traders at the average price of 2 milreis 

 (4s.) a head. Parrots are most frequently obtained inland 

 by barter for about half this price, and then taken in one 

 of the numerous steamboats which ply upon the rivers Para 

 and Amazon to the seaport towns. The purchasers keep 

 them in large cases, in which some perches have been fixed, 

 and which have laths nailed across the front, so that the 

 birds have but little air and less light. Imagine such a dirty 

 place as this, with no kind of provision for cleanliness, into 

 which the food, consisting of bananas, oranges, and potatoes, 

 is thrown, and in a climate where everything so soon decays 

 in the terrible heat ! There the unfortunate birds become 

 covered with dirt and vermin ; it is no wonder that their 

 health is undermined and that incurable diseases attack them. 

 Here they must remain until they are sold and transported 

 to Europe in a steamer or sailing vessel. The treatment of 

 the Grey Parrots in Africa is similar. The negroes bring 



