conversely the monkeys and parrots. In as well as to the structure of their peculiar 

 other words, both types grew up side by brush-like honey-collector. In most par- 

 side in mutual dependence, and evolved rots the mouth is dry and the tongue 

 themselves pari passu for one another's horny ; but in the lories it is moist and 

 benefit. Without the fruits there could much more like the same organ in the 

 be no fruit-eaters ; and without the fruit- humming-birds and the sun-birds. The 

 eaters to disperse their seeds, there could prevalence of very large and brilliantly- 

 not be any great number of fruits. colored flowers in the Malayan region 



Most of the parrots very much resem- must be set down- for the most part to 

 ble the monkeys and other tropical fruit- the selective action of the color-loving, 

 eaters in their habits and manners. They brush-tongued parrots, 

 are gregarious, mischievous and noisy. The Australian continent and New 

 They have no moral sense, and are fond Zealand, as everybody knows, are the 

 of practical jokes. They move about in countries where everything goes by con- 

 flocks, screeching aloud as they go, and traries. And it is here that the parrot 

 alight together on some tree well covered group has developed some of its most 

 with berries. No doubt they herd to- curious offshoots. One would imagine 

 gether for the sake of protection, and beforehand that no two birds could be 

 screech both to keep the flock in a body more unlike in every respect than the 

 and to strike consternation into the gaudy, noisy, gregarious cockatoos and 

 breasts of their enemies. When danger the sombre, nocturnal, solitary owls. Yet 

 threatens, the first bird that perceives it the New Zealand owl-parrot is a lory 

 sounds a note of warning; and in a mo- which has assumed all the appeararfces 

 ment the whole troupe is on the wing at and habits of an owl. A lurker in the twi- 

 once, vociferous and eager, roaring forth light or under the shades of night, bur- 

 a song in their own tongue, which may rowing for its nest in holes in the ground, 

 be interpreted to mean that they are it has dingy brown plumage like the owls, 

 ready to fight if it is necessary. with an undertone of green to bespeak its 



The common gray parrot, the best parrot origin; while its face is entirely 



known in confinement of all his kind, and made up of two great disks, surrounding 



unrivalled as an orator for his graces of the eyes, which succeed in giving it a 



speech, is a native of West Africa. .He most marked and unmistakable owl-like 



feeds in a general way upon palm-nuts, appearance. 



bananas, mangoes, and guavas, but he is Why should a parrot so strangly dis- 



by no means averse, if opportunity offers, guise itself and belie its ancestry ? The 



to the Indian corn of the industrious na- reason is not difficult to discover. It 



tive. It is only in confinement that this found a place for itself ready made in na- 



bird's finer qualities come out, and that it ture. New Zealand is a remote and 



develops into a speechmaker . of distin- sparsely-stocked island, peopled by vari- 



guished attainments. ous forms of life from adjacent but still 



A peculiar and exceptional offshoot of distant continents. There are no danger- 

 the parrot group is the brush-tongued ous enemies there. Here, then, was a 

 lory, several species of which are com- great opportunity for a nightly prowler, 

 mon in Australia and India. These in- The owl-parrot, with true business in 

 teresting birds are parrots which have a stinct, saw the opening thus clearly laid 

 resemblance to humming birds. Flitting before it, and took to a nocturnal and 

 about from tree to tree with great rapid- burrowing life, with the natural conse- 

 ity, they thrust their long extensible quence that those forms survived which 

 tongues, penciled with honey-gathering were dingy in color. Unlike the owls, 

 hairs, into the tubes of many big tropical however, the owl-parrot, true to the veg- 

 blossoms. The lories, indeed, live entire- etarian instincts of the whole lory race, 

 ly on nectar, and they are so common in lives almost entirely upon sprigs of 

 the region they have made their own that mosses and other creeping plants. It is 

 the larger flowers there present the ap- thus essentially a ground bird ; and as it 

 pearance of having been developed with feeds at night in a country possessing no 

 a special view to their tastes and habits, native beasts of prey, it has almost lost 



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