PARROTS. 



The characteristics of these birds are a very large 

 hollow beak, curved above and hooked at the point, 

 short and strong feet, adapted for climbing, and a large 

 fleshy round tongue, which enables them to learn to 

 speak. They are our best-known cage birds, and of 

 late years attempts have been made to naturalize some 

 of the species. A lady in Norfolk has kept a number 

 in her garden, most of which live out of doors all 

 through the winter, and one or two pairs have laid 

 eggs and hatched their young. A friend told me some 

 years ago, that an acquaintance of hers at Torquay 

 had a number of Parrots, Parrakeets, and Macaws 

 loose in her garden, sixteen or eighteen of which were 

 killed one night by a ruthless bird-stuffer. Another 

 lady had a Macaw, tame enough to fly above her head 

 while she walked a distance of three miles, sometimes 

 keeping just above a small Skye Terrier, and tantaliz- 

 ing him -by flying only just out of his reach. This bird 

 would sit on the top of a bare tree in the snow, look- 

 ing quite out of place there, but not appearing to mind 



226 



