THE PARROT. in 



degeneration, the result of association with them. He 

 knows that under happier tircumstances he might have 

 grown a respected patriarch in his native wilds, honoured, 

 by those able to appreciate him, for his wisdom, and sur- 

 rounded by respectful and admiring descendants, and it is 

 the contrast between this and his present lot that has soured 

 the bird's temper and made him a cynic and a misanthrope. 



Hardly less prominent a characteristic among parrots 

 than cynicism is malice. The parrot delights openly and 

 undisguisedly in giving annoyance. To seize the tail of a 

 passing cat, or to awaken a sleeping dog with a sharp bite, 

 affords him a delight over which he will laugh for hours. 

 It is a pleasure to him to interrupt a quiet conversation 

 with wild and sudden screams, and if by imitating a trades- 

 man's cry he can give a servant the trouble of going to the 

 door, his malicious pleasure is unbounded. 



The upper mandible of the beak of the parrot bears the 

 same relation to that of other birds, as does the nose of the 

 elephant to the similar feature among quadrupeds. Instead 

 of being fixed to the skull, it is furnished with a separate 

 bone, and is attached by a sort of natural hinge to it. He 

 is thus able to open his mouth to a very wide extent, and 

 to grasp a finger, a nut, or any other object with amazing 

 force. In bestowing this faculty upon the parrot, Nature 

 had an eye solely to the creature's own benefit, and entirely 

 disregarded the possible consequences to man. The foot, 

 too, has an exceptional formation, giving the bird great 

 power of grasp, enabling it at once to climb, to hang head 

 downwards, or to hold its food while it devours it, with a 

 power and facility almost unequalled among birds. It is 

 not surprising that, with its power of imitating the human 



