THE PIE KIND. 1S1 



at cile and talkative ; in all the islands of the Pacific Sea and the In- 

 dian Ocean, they swarm in great variety and abundance, and add to 

 ihe splendour of those woods which Nature has dressed in eternal 

 green. 



So generally are these birds known at present, and so great is their 

 variety, that nothing 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 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 afterwards the 

 Romans began to seek and rummage through all their dominions for 

 new and unheard-of luxuries, they at last found out others in Gagan- 

 da, 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 sometime struck 

 by a kind of apoplectic blow, by which they fall from their perches, 

 and for a while seem ready to expire. The other is the growing 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 ; for a parrot, well kept, will live five or 

 six-and-twenty years. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE PIGEON AND ITS VARTETIES. 



THIS is one of the birds which, from its great fecundit. , 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 in- 

 creased by human cultivation, since those pigeons that live in a wild 

 state in the woods are by no means so fruitful as those in our pigeon- 

 houses nearer home. The power of increase in most birds depends 

 upon the quantity of their food, and it is seen in more than one in- 

 stance that man by supplying food in plenty, and allowing the ani- 

 mal 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 varieties, derive their origin 

 from one species, the Stock-Dove only, the English name implying 

 its being the stock or stem from whence the other domestic kinds 



