334 INDEX. 



breeds, or what the number^of its young, remains for dis- 

 covery ; for beauty, it exceeds all others of the pie kind, 

 iv. 205. 



Parakeets, a kind of parrot of a lesser size, iv. 223. Of that 

 kind in Brasil, Labat assures us, they are the most beau- 

 tiful in plumage, and the most talkative birds in nature, 230. 

 See Parrot. 



Parasite-plants, not able to support themselves, grow and fix 

 upon some neighbouring tree, i. 354?. 



Parrot, the middle or second size of the kind, described ; the 

 ease with which this bird is taught to speak, and the num- 

 ber of words it is capable of speaking, are surprising ; a 

 grave writer affirms, that one of these was taught to repeat 

 a whole sonnet from Petrarch ; the author has seen one 

 taught to pronounce the ninth commandment articulately ; 

 account of a parrot belonging to king Henry VII. which 

 fell into the Thames, crying, A boat, twenty pound for a 

 boat ; Linnaeus makes its varieties amount to forty-seven, 

 Brisson extends his catalogue to ninety-five, and the author 

 thinks them numberless ; assertion, that the natives of Brasil 

 by art change the colour of a parrot's plumage; pecu- 

 liarities observed in their conformation ; common enough 

 in Europe, will not however breed here ; lose spirits and 

 appetite during the rigour of winter ; instances of sagacity 

 and docility, particularly of the great parrot called aicu- 

 rous ; their habits, their nests, and the number of eggs ; 

 usual method of taking the young ; always speak best 

 when not accustomed to harsh wild notes ; what fruit or 

 grain these birds feed upon, the flesh partakes of the flavour 

 and taste ; instances of it ; seed of the cotton-tree intoxi- 

 cates them, as wine does man ; wine renders them more 

 talkative and amusing ; in France very expert, but nothing 

 to those of Brasil, which Clusius says are most sensible and 

 cunning ; natives of Brasil shoot them with heavy arrows, 

 headed with cotton, which knock down the bird without 

 killing it ; those of the parakeet kind are delicate eating ; 

 of this kind in Brasil, Labat assures us they are the most 

 beautiful in plumage, and the most talkative possible ; are 

 restless, and ever on the wing ; their habits ; their outcry 

 when their companions fall ; are very destructive on the 

 coast of Guinea ; more than a hundred different kinds count- 

 ed on the coast of Africa: the white sort called lories; 

 countries where found ; one, north of the Cape of Good 

 Hope, takes its name from the multitude of parrots in its 

 woods; a hundred kinds now known, not one of which na- 

 turally breeds in countries that acknowledged the Roman 

 power ; the green parakeet, with a red neck, was the first 

 of the kind brought into Europe, and the only one known 

 to the ancients, from Alexander the great to Nero ; disor- 



