PARRHASIUS 



4513 



PARROT 



only in the dense swamp.- of Central Florida 

 and along the lower valley of the Mississippi 

 River. 



PARRHASIUS, para'shius, a famous Greek 

 painter who lived in the time of Socrates. He 

 was born in Ephesus, but became a citizen of 

 ns. The character of his work is known 

 only from the criticism of ancient writers, as 

 none of his paintings has survived. Pliny .- 

 that he was the first artist who made the pro- 

 portions of his pictures correct, and that lu- 

 lled in drawing the outlines of objects. He 

 is said to have been the first who knew how to 

 i li- effect of solidity by the use of light 

 and shade. Most of his paintings were on 

 mythological subjects; a picture of Theseus 

 which he painted was placed in the Capitol of 

 Rome. 



An interesting story is told of his contest 

 with a rival, Zeuxis. The latter displayed his 

 picture of grape clusters, painted so truly that 

 the birds tried to eat them; he then asked 

 Parrhasius to draw aside the curtain that was 

 hung before his own picture. Whereupon Par- 

 rhasius claimed the victory, for the curtain 

 was the picture itself, and it was a gr 

 feat to deceive an artist than to deceive the 



PARRISH, pair'itsh, MAXFIELD (1870- ), a 

 noted American illustrator whose pictures are 

 distinguished for their poetic design, rich col- 

 oring, delicate humor, clever gradations of tone 

 and detail of background. He was born in 

 Philadelphia. After graduating from Haver- 

 ford College, he studied at the Pennsylvania 

 Academy of Fine Arts, in Philadelphia. In 

 1897 his* design won a prize offered by the 

 Century Magazine for a poster to be used as a 

 cover, and since then his exquisite poetic draw- 

 ings have appeared regi ilarly on the covers of 

 many of the foremost periodicals. Although 

 best known as an illustrator, he shows ability 

 : need by his mural dec- 

 orations of < >I<1 King Cole on the walls of the 

 grill room at the Mask and Wig Club of Phila- 

 '" notable works for which 

 ht ha* furm-hed illustrations are Mrs. Whir- 

 Ion's Italian Garden*, Arabian A'; ' W 

 Goose in Pro rbocker's His- 



tory York and Eugene Field's Poems 



of Childhood. 

 Board are two of his best-known paintings. 



PARRISH, &AK1ULL .1858- ), an ! 



:io\eli>t. born in Hi-nry County. Ill . and 

 educate, 1 at the I'lmci-ity ot 



Ming law for several years at \Yicluti. 



Kan., he prospected during 1883-1885 in Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico; later he engaged in 

 in -wspaper work in Denver, Omaha and Chi- 

 cago. He soon began to write novels, and 

 they have appeared in rapid succession, each 

 winning for it- 

 author great pop- 

 ularity. When 

 Wilderness Was 

 ], A Sword oj 



the Old Fr. 



Beth Nor veil, 



Prisoners of 



Chance, The Last 



Voyage oj the 



Donna Isabel, 



Beyond the 



Frontier, My 



Lady of Doubt, RANDALL PARRISH 



My Lady of the North, My Lady of the South, 



Don MacGrath, The Air Pilot and The Red 



are the titles of some of the many m> 

 to his credit. In some of these he has intro- 

 duced his experiences as a prospector in the 



PARROT, pair'ut, a brilliantly-colored, tree- 

 dwelling bird, with stout, hooked bill, 11- 

 tongue, and feet especially constructed for 

 climbing. There are nearly 600 species, dis- 

 tributed throughout all tropical countries, but 

 most abundantly in Central and South America. 

 Australia and the Pacific islands. Parrots are 



ible birds, usually living in flocks. Their 

 voices are loud and harsh, and they keep up a 

 continual screaming. They eat a variety of 

 food, including seeds, nuts, insects. n< rtar and. 

 in some cases, carrion. They nest in holes in 



-, and sometimes in banks of earth, and lay 

 t wo or three white eggs. Many species are com- 

 mon in captivity, and may be taught to speak 

 a very little. The average length of life of the 

 parrot is sixty years. 



American parrots are the splendid 

 and many smaller species, only two 

 of which, however, are found north of M- 

 In New Zealand are found the brown }mrrot. 

 also called the knka parrot, in imitation 

 voice; the kca or mountain parrot, a 1 

 species, infamous for its habits of killing 

 sheep; and the owl parrot, an odd species with 

 ha n hke feathers about its eyes and known as 



.:ht prowler. In the Austrah D are 



found the cockatoo*, very large birds, usually 

 uhite in color, tinged with rose or milphur- 



\\ and having large frontal crests; and the 

 and lorikeets, small handsome birds with 



