EXTRACTS FROM AN ANONYMOUS JOURNAL. 67 



bill is short, thick, and strong ; the upper half or 

 the " upper mandible," as it should be called, is much 

 curved, and has an acute hooked tip : it is movable, and 

 overhangs the lower mandible. The latter is short and 

 obtuse, rather square. Their powerful bill helps them 

 much in climbing. The tongue is fleshy and rounded, 

 nd in some, provided with brush-like bristles. The 

 flight of the parrot is moderately fast. 



Parrots, as a rule, are very cleanly in their habits, 

 and if not actually engaged in feeding, or other works of 

 social or individual economy, they employ their time in 

 toilet operations, which generally consist in carefully 

 preening all the feathers. On one or two occasions I 

 have witnessed a flock of Ring-necked Parrakeets enjoy- 

 ing a bath in a small ditch of clear water by the side of 

 a field of ripening wheat corn. In captivity, also, they 

 are fond of bathing, and it is therefore advisable to 

 provide a caged parrot with a shallow pan of water 

 during the day. They eat much, but waste more, ap- 

 parently in wanton mischief. Any one who has ever 

 witnessed a parrot feeding in captivity must have noticed, 

 that it takes a beakful of grain, paddy or hempseed for 

 instance, and lodges it under the tongue, takes it out 

 again grain by grain, separates the husk from the grain, 

 and eats until its hunger is satisfied. It does all this 

 with marvellous quickness and method. 



I lately saw a remarkably large black Cockatoo, which 

 belongs to the same family as parrots, with a fine crest 

 and a large beak, in one of the bird shops at Territibazar 



