127 



Columbus in 1493, and after the circumnavigation of 

 Africa at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Indian 

 species were introduced. 



Grey Parrots were imported into Europe in the 

 middle ages, but as far as I am aware there is no record 

 of their being kept in Kngland before the year 1600. 

 Catherine of Braganza, the Queen of Charles 11. , had a 

 collection of Parrots, and paid the Parrot-keeper the 

 very high salary in those days of £2>^ a year ; and the 

 Duchess of Richmond and Gordon, who was a celebrated 

 beautj-at the Court of Charles II., had a Grey Parrot for 

 forty years, which is said to be preserved in Westminster 

 Abbey, with the effigy of its mistress. 



The custom of keeping Parrots as pets is b}' no 

 means confined to civilised nations. When the dis- 

 coverers of America landed in that country, it is said 

 that they were met by natives carrying tame Macaws, 

 and in all parts of the world where Parrots are found 

 they have been kept in a state of confinement or semi- 

 confinement by the natives from remote periods of time. 

 In Africa the negroes are in the habit of rearing Grey 

 Parrots from the nest and keeping them about their huts 

 with clipped wings. And in vSonth America the tall trees 

 in which the Macaws breed are regarded as family 

 possessions, and it is said that though the young are 

 regularly taken and reared by hand, }-et the old birds 

 return year after year to the same trees, which thus 

 become a regular source of income to the owners. 



The Parrots form a well-defined Family of the Sub- 

 order Zygodactylce, or climbing birds, a group which 

 also includes the Cuckoos and the Woodpeckers. 



Without going too much into anatomical details, I 

 may point out one or two characters which are interest- 

 ing in relation to their habits. They are '-yoke-footed" 

 birds, having the toes arranged in pairs, two in front and 

 two behind. The maxilla or upper mandible of the beak is 

 in the Parrots exceptionally moveable, owing to the fact 

 that there is a joint between it and the frontal bones of 

 the skull which is wanting in other birds. The vomer 



