CHAPTER XL VII. 



I HIS curious bird, which is also known by the name 

 of Monk and Quaker Parrakeet, and to the Germans 

 by that of ''The Young Widow, on account of its 

 sprightly manner," as Dr. Karl Russ somewhat unfeel- 

 ingly remarks, is without doubt the most interesting 

 member of the great Parrot Family, and for this 

 reason: it is the only one of them that builds itself a 

 nest of sticks in a tree. 



Of course, a good deal of speculation might be 

 indulged in here, and attempts might be made, more 

 or less successfully, to account for its departure from 

 the established custom of the race; or possibly for the 

 extreme "conservatism" that has caused it to cling to 

 the original mode of Parrot nidification common at one 

 time to them all for every question that can be 

 debated has two sides, although our good friends the 

 Evolutionists will only admit of one. But this i s 

 scarcely the place for such a controversy; enough if, 



