THE PIE KIND. 



see them when they find their companions fall- 

 en. They set up a loud outcry, as il'they were 

 chiding their destroyer, and do notecase till 

 they see him preparing for a second charge. 



But though there are so many motives for 

 destroying these beautiful birds, they are in 

 very great plenty ; and in some countries on 

 the coast of Guinea, they are considered by 

 the negroes as their greatest tormentors. 

 The Hocks of parrots persecute them with 

 their unceasing screaming, and devour what- 

 ever fruits they attempt to produce by art in 

 their little gardens. In other places they are 

 not so destructive, but sufficiently common ; 

 and, indeed, there is scarce a country of the 

 tropical climates that has not many of the 

 common kinds, as well as some peculiarly its 

 own. Travellers have counted more than a 

 hundred different kinds on the continent of 

 Africa only: there is one country in particular, 

 north of the Cape of Good Hope, which takes 

 its name from the multitude of parrots which 

 are seen in its woods. There are white par- 

 rots seen in the burning regions of Ethiopia : 

 in the East Indies they are of the largest size ; 

 in South America they are docile and talka- 

 tive ; in all the islands of the Pacific Sea and 

 the Indian Ocean, they swarm in great variety 

 and abundance, and add to the splendour of 

 those woods which nature has dressed in 

 eternal green. 



So generally are these birds known at pre- 

 sent, and so great is their variety, that no- 



thing seems more extraordinary than that 

 there was but one sort of them known among 

 the ancients, and that at a time when they 

 pretended to be masters of the world. If 

 nothing else could serve to show the vanity 

 of a Roman's boast, the parrot tribe might be 

 an instance, of which there are a hundred 

 kinds now known ; not one of which naturally 

 breeds in the countries that acknowledged 

 the Roman power. The green parakeet, 

 with a red neck, was the first of this kind that 

 was brought into Europe, and the only one 

 that was known to the ancients, from the time 

 of Alexander the Great to the age of Nero : 

 this was brought from India; and when after- 

 wards the Romans began to seek and rum- 

 mage through all their dominions, for new and 

 unheard-of luxuries, they at last found out 

 others in Gaganda, an island of Ethiopia, 

 which they considered as an extraordinary 

 discovery. 



Parrots have usually the same disorders 

 with other birds ; and they have one or two 

 peculiar to their kind. They are sometimes 

 struck by akind of apoplectic blow, by which 

 they fall from their perches, and for a while 

 seem ready to expire. The other is the grow- 

 ing of the beak, which becomes so very much 

 hooked as to deprive them of the power of 

 eating. These infirmities, however, do not 

 hinder them from being long-lived; fora par- 

 rot, well kept, will lire five or six and twenty 

 years. 



CHAPTER CV. 



THE PIGEON, AND ITS VARIETIES. 



THIS is one of the birds which, from its 

 great fecundity, we have, in some measure, 

 reclaimed from a state of nature, and taught 

 to live in habits of dependence. Indeed, its 

 fecundity seems to be increased by human 

 cultivation; since those pigeons that live in 

 a wild state, in the woods, are by no .means 

 BO fruitful as those in our pigeon-houses near- 

 er home. The power of increase in most 

 birds depends upon the quantity of their food; 



and it is seen, in more than one instance, that 

 man, by supplying food in plenty, and allow- 

 ing the animal at the same time a proper 

 share of freedom, has brought some of those 

 kinds which are known to lay but once a 

 year, to become much more prolific. 



The tame pigeon, and all its beautiful va- 

 rieties, derive their origin from one species, 

 the Stock-Dove only ; the English name, im- 

 plying its being the stock or stem from whence 



