T26 



public, with a few fish in, and the bird can fetch one 

 without coining near the front. Only once have I been 

 able to keep two together for any length of time, and 

 these two good friends were taken by rats one after the 

 other. Ever since, one bird, when established, has 

 refused to allow the admission of a companion, but has 

 always persecuted it to death. A Kingfisher will eat a 

 score or five and twenty minnows per day and can 

 swallow a fish as big as your little finger at a gulp." 

 " I am, etc., 



"Chas. L. Rothrpa." 

 (7(3 he Contiinied). 



PARROTS AND PARRAKEETS. 



By Dr. C. S. Simpson. 



I propose to attempt, with, I fear, but partial success, 

 the somewhat difficult task of condensing into a very 

 limited space an account of the numerous species of the 

 famil}' Psittaci, which are commonh' or occasionally kept 

 as cage birds in this country. The number of species of 

 Parrots known to us at the present time is 496, and of 

 these rather more than 100 are more or less frequently 

 kept in captivity. 



Parrots have been kept in confinement as pets from 

 a ver}' ancient period of time : indeed it is l^elieved by 

 some commentators that the "Peacocks" which were 

 brought to King Solomon from Ophir were really 

 Parrots, and if that be so it is the earliest record we have 

 of Parrots in captivity. Onesicrites, admiral of the fleet 

 of Alexander the Great, brought from Ceylon a green 

 Parrot, with a red neck, which is generally supposed to 

 liave been the Alexandrine Parrakeet, but ma}- as 

 probably have been the Lesser Ring-necked. Parrots 

 were biought to Rome from Africa in the time of Nero, 

 and these are supposed to have been the African variety 

 of the Ring-necked. The Senegal Parrot and other West 

 African species were known in Europe as far back as the 

 fifteenth centurj'. American species were imported by 



