HOW PARROTS BUILD THEIR NESTS. 21 
this powder comes off. I have killed wild ones perfect- 
ly splendid, much larger and handsomer than any I have 
seen tame. 
I wondered why these parrots had chosen this Island 
as their bedroom. Why did they come from such dis- 
tances every day when there were so many tall trees in 
the forest on the main-land? I found that it was because 
they were safer than on the main-land; there were no 
- genetta (a kind of wild cat) to pounce upon them and dis- 
turb, or rather devour, them at night. 
PARROT ISLAND, 
Days passed, and every morning and every evening the 
parrots went away and the parrots came back, and be- — 
tween three and four o’clock in the morning began their 
charming noise; but I became quite accustomed to it and 
did not mind it at all after a while. I noticed also that 
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