PAEEOTS. 459 



it from its envelope and swallow it in particles. They often visit 

 plantations and cause great devastation. In a domestic state they 

 are omnivorous. Besides seeds and grain, they eat bread, and 

 even raw or cooked meat, and it is with manifest pleasure that 

 they receive bones to pick ; they are also very partial to sugar. 

 It is well known that bitter almonds and parsley act upon them 

 as violent poisons. They drink and bathe very frequently ; in 

 summer they evince the greatest desire to plunge into water. 

 Captive Parrots will habituate themselves, if permitted, to the use 

 of wine ; it produces the same effect on them as on the human 

 family, viz., excites their loquacity and gaiety. They climb in a 

 peculiar manner, which has nothing of the abruptness displayed 

 by other birds of the same order. They accomplish their slow and 

 irregular movements by the help of the beak and feet, which 

 lend a reciprocal support. Like almost all birds of tropical 

 regions, Parrots are adorned with most beautiful colours, green 

 predominating; then comes red, and finally blue and yellow. 

 They have often largely-developed tails. 



Notwithstanding their prattling, Parrots are the favourites of 

 men, from their remarkable talent of imitation. They retain and 

 repeat with great facility words which they have learned or heard 

 by chance, and also sometimes imitate, with startling resemblance, 

 the cries of animals, the sounds of different musical instru- 

 ments, &c. 



By the words that they utter in an unexpected manner, Parrots 

 contribute to our amusement and diversion, and quite become 

 companions. Is it, then, to be wondered at that these birds 

 have been eagerly sought since their introduction into Europe ? 

 Alexander the Great brought into Greece a Parrot which he 

 had found in India. These birds became so common in Eome 

 at the time of the emperors, that they figured in their sump- 

 tuous repasts. They are now spread throughout Europe in a 

 domestic state. 



The species most remarkable for their mimic babbling faculties 

 are the Grey Parrot, or Jaco, a native of Africa, and the Green 

 Parrot, from the West Indies and Tropical America. 



In the sixteenth century a cardinal paid a hundred crowns for 

 a Parrot because it recited the Apostles' Creed correctly. Monsieur 



