176 THE SPEAKING PARROTS. 



words can be understood. Otherwise, it speaks very distinctly 

 and clearly many words and whole sentences. It has learnt all it 

 knows from other speaking parrots, from someone talking to it, or 

 from the other birds, during the cleaning of the cages and the 

 giving of food. Nearly every day it chatters something fresh 

 which it has picked up in this way ; thus it talks nearly the whole 

 day, but mostly in the evening, when its cage is covered. It can 

 laugh in the most deceiving manner. If I go by night into the 

 aviary to look after anything, and some bird wakens and cries, this 

 one seldom joins in it, but calls out in an angry tone, ' Be still, 

 you rascal ! ' or, in a tone of astonishment, ' Well, what's the 

 matter ? ' In all this is displayed the talent and teachableness 

 of the bird, and I could go on telling many tales about it — how 

 it bites my finger as I take it back to the cage, and when I let 

 the sliding door fall, runs away with a triumphant ' Ha ! ' ; how 

 well it can express pleasure or grief, longing or delight, &c. It 

 eats the finest wheaten bread mixed with biscuit, boiled maize, 

 service berries dried and then moistened, besides hemp seed, oats 

 and wheat half ripe in the ear, figs, and other fruit ; it also gets 

 fresh pine shoots. If, it has eaten a great deal, it brings back 

 the food, as if ruminating, in order to masticate it again com- 

 fortably." 



To the present time, the Red Lory is one of the rarest in the 

 market. Dr. Platen brought over seven specimens. 



CHAP. LXVIL— THE BLUE-BREASTED LORY. 



Psittacus coccineus, Lth. 



Blue Diademed Lory (Ger., Blaastirniger Lovi, Diademlori 

 Blauhrilstiger Breitschwanzlorl ; Fr., Perruche Lori violette et 

 rouge; Dut., Blauiv en roode Loeri) — Description — Domestic 

 Character. 



It is greatly to be regretted that this lory, of which Mr. Scheuba, 

 the noted connoisseur of Broad-tailed Lories, speaks as the most 

 surpassingly splendid in colour, should be among the rarest in 

 this country, especially as it has been known for a long period. 



The head, throat, and front of the neck are carmine ; 

 across the crown of the head, from one eye to the other, there is 



