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80 r//^ SPEAKING PARROTS. 



ignorant as to tlieir food, manner of building, first plumage, and 

 other important points. 



The Grey Parrot is ashen grey ; each feather on the head, 

 neck, breast and back has a light edge. The wings are of 

 a darker grey, without the light edge ; the quills greyish- 

 black : the middle and lower part of the back, and the rump, 

 are pure greyish-white ; the tail, as well as upper and lower 

 tail coverts, scarlet ; breast, belly, sides, and hinder part of the 

 body, whitish-grey ; the beak black, the eyes black, grey, 

 yellow, or white, according to age : the skin on the nose, lores, 

 and circle round the eye (eye cere), featherless and greyish-white; 

 the feet bluish or whitish grey, dappled with black ; the claws 

 black. The plumage, like that of most parrots, is more or 

 less full of down. The size varies extraordinarily, and often 

 depends upon the age, sex, and, probably, on the place where 

 found; it is about that of a large pigeon — length 14|-in. to 

 15|in. (the smallest from llfin. to 12Jin,); the wings from 

 7iin. to 9in. ; the tail from 2|in. to 3|-in. long. The differ- 

 ences in sex are not yet known with certainty ; the smaller, 

 lighter-coloured parrots are taken to be the females, and the 

 larger, darker ones, with long neck, for males. The negroes 

 are said to assert that the nostrils of the males are round and 

 those of the females oblong ; the only certain difference 

 (according to Soyaux) probably is that the bones of the 

 pelvis are close to each other in the male, and in the female 

 are so far separated that an egg can pass through. 



The colour of the plumage of the young birds has not been 

 ascertained with certainty, at least, no African traveller has 

 stated whether the young leave the nest with a red tail, or 

 whether, as asserted by some one who could, however, give no 

 proof of his statement, they have at that stage a brown tail. 

 Otto Eichter, of Bremerhaven, says that he recognises the 

 young Grey Parrots as they come into the market most surely 

 by the brown nest feathers which cover the whole body, with 

 the exception of the head, pinions, tail, and belly, and which 

 by degrees give place to the grey feathers with a light edge. 

 These birds mostly have black eyes when they arrive, which 

 gradually change to ashen grey ; in about five months they 

 become light grey, and after the lapse of a year greyish-yellow, 

 or pale yellow ; and not till after three or four years do they 

 become maize-coloured, or yellowish-white. The tail is bright 

 red, every feather faintly seamed with brown, changing by 



