ASH-COLOURED OR GREY PARROT. 129 



meat. When feeding, it often holds its food clasped in 

 the foot, and, before swallowing, masticates or re- 

 duces it to small pieces by its powerful bill and pa- 

 latial cutters. This member, so unlike that of other 

 frugivorous birds, is admirably calculated for the 

 principal offices it has to perform, viz. breaking the 

 shells of the hardest fruits and setfds, and as a 

 strong and powerful organ of prehension and sup- 

 port ; for few of our readers but must have observed 

 that the bill is always first used, and chiefly depend- 

 ed upon when a Parrot is caged, in climbing or 

 moving from one position to another. The longe- 

 vity of the feathered race, we believe, in general far 

 exceeds what is commonly supposed, at least if we 

 may judge from the age attained by various birds, 

 even when subjected to captivity and confinement. 

 Thus, we have instances of eagles living for half a 

 century : the same of ravens, geese, and other large 

 birds, as well as among the smaller kinds usually kept 

 caged. The Parrot appears to yield to none of these, 

 and several instances are upon record of their having 

 reached the remarkable age of sixtv or seventy years. 

 Among these, none is more interesting than that of an 

 individual mentioned by M. Le Vaillant, which had 

 lived in a state of domesticity for no less than ninety- 

 three years. At the time that eminent naturalist saw 

 it, it was in a state of entire decrepitude, and in a 

 kind of lethargic condition, its sight and memory 

 being both gone, and was fed at intervals with bis- 

 cuit soaked in Madeira wine. In the time of its 



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