THE PIE KIND. 



527 



at maturity, yet it always seems sensible of 

 its rigour, and loses both its spirit and appe- 

 tite during the colder part of the season. It 

 then becomes torpid and inactive, and seems 

 quite changed from that bustling loquacious 

 animal which it appeared in its native forest, 

 where it is almost ever upon the wing. Not- 

 withstanding, the parrot lives even with us a 

 considerable time, if it be properly attended 

 to ; and, indeed, it must be owned, that it 

 employs but too great a part of some people's 

 attention. 



The extreme sagacity and docility of the 

 bird may plead as the best excuse for those 

 who spend whole hours in teaching their 

 parrots to speak; and, indeed, the bird, on 

 those occasions, seems the wisest animal of 

 the two. It at first obstinately resists all in- 

 struction ; but seems to be won by perseve- 

 rance, makes a few attempts to imitate the 

 first sounds, and when it has got one word 

 distinct, all the succeeding come with greater 

 facility. The bird generally learns most in 

 those families where the master or mistress 

 have the least to do ; and becomes more ex- 

 pert, in proportion as its instructers are idly 

 assiduous. In going through the towns of 

 Frnnce some time since, I could not help ob- 

 serving how much plainer their parrots spoke 

 than ours, and how very distinctly I under- 

 stood their parrots speak French, when I 

 could not understand our own, though they 

 spoke my native language. I was at first for 

 ascribing it to the different qualities of the 

 two languages, and was for entering into an 

 elaborate discussion on the vowels and con- 

 sonants : but a friend that was with me solved 

 the difficulty at once, by assuring me that the 

 F.rench women scarcely did any thing else 

 the whole day than sit and instruct their 

 feathered pupils ; and that the birds were 

 thus distinct in their lessons in consequence 

 of continual schooling. 



The parrots of France are certainly very 

 expert, but nothing to those of the Brasils, 

 where the education of a parrot is consider- 

 ed as a very serious affhir. The history of 

 Prince Maurice's parrot, given us by Mr. 

 Locke, is too well known to be repeated 

 here ; but Clusius assures us that the parrots 

 of th.it country are the most sensible and 

 cunning of all animals not endued with rea- 



son. The great parrot, called the aicurou-s, 

 the head of which is adorned with yellow, 

 red, and violet, the body green, the ends of 

 the wings red, the feathers of the tail long and 

 yellow ; this bird, he asserts, which is seldom 

 brought into Europe, is a prodigy of under- 

 standing. " A certain Brasilian woman, 

 that lived in a village two miles distant from 

 the island on which we resided, had a parrot 

 of this kind which was the wonder of the 

 place. It seemed endued with such under- 

 standing, as to discern and comprehend what- 

 ever she said to it. As we sometimes used 

 to pass by that woman's house, she used to 

 call upon us to stop, promising, if we gave 

 her a comb, or a looking-glass, that she would 

 make her parrot sing and dance to entertain 

 us. If we agreed to her request, as soon as 

 she had pronounced some words to the bird, 

 it began not only to leap and skip on the 

 perch on which it stood, but also to talk and 

 to whistle, and imitate the shoutings and ex- 

 clamations of the Brasilians when they pre- 

 pare for battle. In brief, when it came into 

 the woman's head to bid it sing, it sang; to 

 dance, it danced. But if, contrary to our 

 promise, we refused to give the* woman the 

 little present agreed on, the parrot seemed to 

 sympathize in her resentment, and was silent 

 and immoveable; neither could we, by any 

 means, provoke it to move either foot or 

 tongue." 



This sagacity, which parrots show in a do- 

 mestic state, seems also natural to them in 

 their native residence among the woods. 

 They live together in flocks, and mutually 

 assist each other against other animals, either 

 by their courage or their notes of warning. 

 They generally breed in hollow trees, where 

 they make a round hole, and do not line their 

 nests within. If they find any part of a tree 

 beginning to rot from the breaking off of a 

 branch, or any such accident, this they take 

 care toscoop,and to make the hole sufficiently 

 wide and convenient; but it sometimes hap- 

 pens that they are content with the hole 

 which a woodpecker has wrought out with 

 greater ease before them ; and in this they 

 prepare to hatch and bring up their young. 



They lay two or three eggs ; and probably 

 the smaller kind may lay more; for it is a 

 rule that universally holds through nature, 



