CHAPTER XXXIII. 



King 



I His fine bird, which is about a third larger than the 

 last, is like it a native of New South Wales and 

 Southern Queensland, where it is becoming rare on 

 account of the persecution it undergoes at the hands 

 of the farmers, to whose crops of maize and other 

 cereals it is but fair to say it does considerable damage ; 

 not so much by reason of what it eats, as of what it 

 wilfully destroys, for when it has bitten off an ear of 

 corn, it merely picks out one kernel and letting the 

 rest fall to the ground, presently gathers another stalk 

 which it treats in exactly the same way, and so until 

 its appetite is satisfied. 



Happily the King Parrakeet, and his consort the 

 Queen, are not large feeders, but supposing each of 

 them to dispose of twenty grains of wheat for a meal, 

 that would mean, owing to their unthrifty habits, no 

 less than forty ears of corn destroyed, and if that loss 

 to the farmer is multiplied by ten or twelve heads, of 

 which a flock of these birds generally consists, it will 



