28 THE SPEAKING PARROTS. 



CHAP. IV.— FOOD. 



Improper Feeding by Wholesale Buyers and Importers — Natural 

 Food of Parrots — Corresj)onding Food in Captivity — Evils 

 of Careless Feeding — Dietary Requisites — Lime — Drinking 

 and Bathing Water. 



Suitability of food, always of surpassing importance, is ob- 

 viously imperative in the case of tlie more valuable speakers. 

 With reference to what I have already stated in a previous chapter, 

 I will, first of all, once more point out that the wholesale buyer 

 and importer have, up to the present, acted wrongly in this 

 matter, and thus from the beginning sown the seeds of sickness 

 or death. The large speakers are fed in their native places, 

 after they are reared, with chewed maize, either with the same 

 grain in a dry, hard condition, with or without the addition 

 of ship-biscuits, or with bananas and other tropical fruits, as 

 well as with boiled maize, boiled potatoes, &c., and many, 

 kinds — especially the lories — get soaked East Indian rice. 

 Everyone who brings over parrots feeds them according to his 

 own notions and knowledge, and it may well be imagined that 

 one and the same species is frequently managed in many 

 different ways. In this lies the cause of manifold evils, and 

 there is, indeed, a most pressing necessity that the entire import 

 trade in parrots, and their management on the way, should 

 be regulated with uniformity. The wholesale dealers must 

 make an effort in this direction by demanding strong, healthy 

 birds, and this can onl}'- be obtained by having the food and 

 management from the first arranged suitably and naturally. 

 It may be objected that this is not possible until the mode 

 of life and sustenance in a state of freedom is fully known. 

 The attainment of this object would require considerable travel 

 and exploration, which, unfortunately, would have to extend 

 to very distant regions. I can, however, most decidedly — as it 

 is — express the opinion and repeat it, that the present modes 

 of importation of all — and especially of the larger parrots — are, 

 without exception, more or less pernicious. 



It is unquestionable that all the last-named birds, when in 

 freedom, live chiefly on farinaceous seeds, to a slight extent on 

 oily seeds, and partly, also, on the fresh and delicate parts 



