FOREIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



fort and health of their birds, and (to save themselves 

 a little trouble) are satisfied to purchase the first packet 

 of hopelessly impossible seeds which claims to be a 

 suitable food for every kind of Parrot, so long also 

 as they persist in the senseless supposition that because 

 a Parrot talks it can be kept in health upon human 

 food, just so long will this interesting bird suffer from 

 all the ills to which a maltreated bird is heir — vomit- 

 ing, lassitude, diarrhoea, cramp, fits, dryness and irrita- 

 tion of the skin, inducing feather-plucking, tumours, 

 septicaemia, and early death. 



I do not doubt that unhealthy conditions during 

 importation may be the cause of death in some cases, 

 but unquestionably by far the greater number of Grey 

 Parrots which die after importation would live if cor- 

 rectly fed from the beginning, instead of being jxjisoned 

 ■with sopped bread, table scraps, and so-called " Parrot 

 food," with most unwholesome and unnatural drinks. 



I have had to recommend treatment for many hun- 

 dreds of these birds, and 1 find, almost invariably, that 

 a bird which appears to be suffering from a severe cold, 

 accompanied by vomiting and diarrhoea, has been fed 

 partly upon sop in some form or other — bread and milk. 

 bread or toast soaked in some breakfast drink ; then 

 a bird which plucks itself has more often than other- 

 wise had some kind of animal food — butter, cheese, 

 egg, bones, or some kind of flesh ; a bird with cramp 

 has often been fed upon "Parrot food" alone and 

 has selected certain seeds — perhaps maize and sun- 

 flower — throwing over all the others, and has got 

 itself into a thoroughly unhealthy condition in con- 

 sequence. For a Grey Parrot when at liberty maize 

 in the milky stage, millet, and other cidtivatecl cereals 

 are natural food ; but that is no reason why the same 

 bird in captivity should be restricted to hard hors"- 

 tooth maize and sunflower, with no variety unless it 

 chooses to eat prairie-grass seed, pumpkin seed, diy 

 bread stained with turmeric, monkey nuts, and dirt : 

 or as a change dry chillies. As for fruit, of which in 

 its wild state the Grey Parrot eats quantities daily, the 

 owners of many unhappy individuals never think of it 

 as a necessarv article for the bird's daily consiunption. 



On Jlay 2dth, 1899, I had a young Grey Parrot sent 

 to me from Liverpool. I got it from an approved 

 source, and it reached me in tolerably good health, al- 

 though its bowels were somewhat rela.xed. In the 

 cage I found boiled horse-tooth maize and the remains 

 of what looked like brown bread sop. I continued to 

 give boiled maize for several days, adding thereto 

 hemp, wheat, dari. canary, and cracknel biscuits; I 

 also gave bananas, which the bird seized and devoured 

 ravenously. To cure the diarrhoea I gave the bird a 

 piece of cuttlefish bone to chew up. 



After a few days my Grey refused the boiled maize, 

 and I substituted a piece of stale household bread 

 (about a cubic inch), a piece of boiled potato of about 

 the same size, and part of an orange. Later on, as 

 oranges became scarce, I substituted pears and sweet- 

 water grapes, with walnut occasionally. If the bird 

 sneezed, I promptly mixed a few chillies with his 

 seeds. 



Although I had decided what to feed my bird on 

 before I purchased it, I made the unfortunate mistake 

 which many other Parrot owners make of covering the 

 cage over at night ; the result was that after it had 

 been some time in my possession and had become an 

 accomplished talker, it began to pluck out its breast- 

 feathers, and I only discovered the cause of the trouble 

 when it -was too late to cure it. Across the bare patch 

 on the breast I eaw several small black creature? run- 

 ning — ^parrot-lice, as I discovered aiS soon as I examined 



them through a lens. These wretched little parasites, 

 when seen with tlie naked eye, look not unlike the 

 P/iysojHirta of the jenus Thrips, which are so mis- 

 chievous in greenhouses; but, when magnified, they ar& 

 eeen to be true lice { A no pi ti ra) ^ and bear a fugitive 

 resemblance to the Rove-beetles (Staph ylinida) of the 

 genus Strnu.<. thousjh not when examined in detail. On 

 examining the cover I found dozens of these insects 

 concealed in the fold.-s. wliere they had harlx>ured and 

 bred. Of course. I speedily got rid of the cover and 

 powdered the 'bird well with pyretlirimi. All the para- 

 sites were exterminated, but the feather-plucking habit 

 induced by the irritation was eetablisJied, and therefore 

 persisted in to the end. 



I do not tliink there itj much to be learned' by repeat- 

 ing the word* and sentences spoken by any paTtioular 

 PaiTot. Each bird repeats what hae been taught, occa- 

 sionally picking up a word or sentence which it has 

 chanced to liear. and sometimes unintentionally (very 

 rarely with intelligent compreJientsion of the meaning 

 of the words) n.«e.s them in an apposite manner. A 

 Parrot easily learns to -comprehend the meaning of 

 names, and, having learned to know different persons by 

 their Christian names, never confuse.? one with another, 

 "hus my bird knew that its own name was Bobby ; it 

 knew me as Arthur, my wife as Mary, my man as Tom, 

 and his sister as Ann. It would always call us by 

 name with perfect disicernnient. If I were making a 

 fuss over my English Jay. tlie Parrot usuallv became 

 jealous, and called out, "Arthur! Arthur! Bobby's a 

 pretty Ijoy," or "Poor Boliby ! " and gave me no j>eace 

 imtil I took notice of him. Why Parrot-owners almoist 

 invariably call their birds — 'both male and female — 

 " Polly." and speak of them ae she, I never could under- 

 stand. 



My bird was poisoned early in 1905 through eating 

 a heiTv of Solatium, given to it in a fit of absent- 

 mindednea? by a visitor — I was away from home at the 

 time — the skin of the Iberry was found on the flocr of 

 its cage after its death. I have never purchased 

 another; though if I were restricted to one bird as a 

 pet I think I should certainly choose a Grey Parrot 

 becau.«e of the delight %i'hich its remarks occasion to 

 young and old alike. The grave manner in which my 

 bird looked at a j>erfect stranger, saying. " Hullo, old 

 chap! How'.si your grandmother?" and then as the 

 visitor turned round with a laugh, added with evident 

 conviction, "You're a rascal!" was extremely funny, 

 and, though an old joke to me, gave fresh xlelig'ht to 

 every newcomer. 



The Grey Parrot was successfully bred by Hen- Fritz 

 I.ctze in 19C0, two young having been reared. 



TiMXEH P.1RR0T {P<ittaciis timiieli). 

 Dark grey ; lower back and rump pale grey ; fJighbs 

 blackish ; tail dull deep red. darker and browner at 

 margins of feathers ; head and neck with paler edges 

 to the feathers ; fcrehead and orbital region naked' and 

 covered with small whitish papillae ; abdomen pale 

 grey; longer under tuil-eoverts dark grey with a red- 

 dish tinge ; upper mandible pale horn-colour becoming 

 black towards tip, lower mandible black ; feet gi'ey ; 

 irides pale yellow or yellowish-wlute. Female smaller 

 than the male, and in otlier respects differing as in the 

 preceding .species. Hab.. Liberia and Lower Sierra 

 Leone. Doubtless the hal)its of this species in a wild 

 state nearly Tesemble tliofe of the Grey PaiiTot, which 

 it replaces in Liberia. According to Russ it was re- 

 garded either as a young plumage or aberration of P. 

 erit/iacus, but is now established as a distinct species ; 



