INTRODVCTION. 



tliem to market in long, reed-shaped baskets, which they 

 carry upon their shoulders ; one after the other is seized from 

 behind and dragged out so that it cannot bite. The treat- 

 ment on the part of the purchasers is, according to unani- 

 mous information, everywhere the same. In this, as in every 

 part of the world, living birds are merely regarded as an 

 article of commerce, and each one endeavours, with the least 

 possible trouble, to get the highest possible gain." 



The parrots suffer much more on the steamboat than while 

 in the hands of the buyers. They are pent in great numbers 

 in proportionately small cases, which have bars only on one 

 side, stowed in the lower hold of the ship, where they must 

 suffer in the hot, steamy, smoky air, yet more from the fact 

 that, whether it be from prejudice or necessity, they are denied 

 drinking water. In spite of all such irrational treatment, the 

 astonishingly greater number continue, as has been said, not 

 only to live, but they appear- — which must strike us as equally 

 wonderful — as a rule well fed and strong, and do not show signs 

 of any kind of sickness. Thus they arrive in Europe. They are 

 now obliged to pass through another severe struggle for 

 existence — a raw climate, change of food, in short, totally 

 different circumstances, and at the same time all sorts of dis- 

 quiet and terror. Here they usually strive to live for one or two 

 weeks, sometimes for six, and in rare cases for eight, but then 

 they are, with very few exceptions, hopelessly lost. It is 

 noteworthy that the disease may show itself, in a few days or 

 hours after water has been given, in a parrot which up to that 

 time appeared quite healthy. 



The Grey Parrots, as I said before, suffer most from these 

 evil influences, and they are lost most frequently from blood- 

 poisoning, as has been proved by the examination of numberless 

 birds which have died immediately upon importation. Cure has 

 been found impossible ; certainly, in spite of many and varied 

 attempts, no successful treatment has as yet been discovered ; 

 moreover, this disease is very dangerous, threatening other 

 long since imported and healthy birds, through contagion. For 

 these evils there are two remedies : either the wholesale dealers 

 must arrange that the purchase of Grey Parrots be so 

 looked after and regulated in their native places that the birds 

 shall be no longer, from mere avarice, packed in masses together, 

 and through shameful neglect given over to destruction ; in other 

 words, the wholesale dealers must see that the parrots are 



