87 



"stores, or emporia, to which these poor parrots are 

 " conveyed in this country, and apparently in Africa 

 " and the Canary Islands too. There is no known 

 " remedy." He also says that he believes it to be 

 generated by insanitary surroundings. This is a con- 

 clusion with which no one can quarrel, but I am not 

 in agreement with an opinion I have seen expressed 

 both by him and others that the Amazons are not 

 affected by it, and that only the African species are 

 susceptible. Neither the environment of the South 

 American forests and the West Indian islands nor the 

 avian habits of life in those regions differ so much 

 from the parallel conditions in Africa as to have 

 conduced to the establishment of any special racial 

 immunity through the agency of continuous elimina- 

 tion of the unfit. Were the birds of the New World 

 imported through the same channels in equal num- 

 bers Vv^ith those from the Old, and therefore under the 

 same insalutary conditions of treatment from the 

 moment of their capture onwards, we should soon 

 see an equal mortality from the same disease in the 

 visitors from both Continents. 



Vast numbers of African birds, both adult and 

 immature, are trapped by the natives for export, the 

 young ones being easily taken by hand when they 

 first leave the nest. Overcrowded in wicker cages 

 while still in the trappers' hands, subjected on the 

 voyage to every discomfort associated with filth, and 

 therefore obliged to eat and drink under the foulest 

 conditions, it is no wonder the majority of the poor 

 creatures succumb, either during the voyage or soon 

 after landing, to a disease produced and fostered by 

 an environment to which their race has hitherto been 

 a stranger. In their case the weeding out of those 

 individuals whose reaction is imperfect takes place 

 under our own eyes, and we are consequently enabled 

 lo recognize their susceptibility to the disease. But 



