PARROTS. 51 



in dark and noisome baskets, like slaves in a dhow. 

 Thence they find their way to every lane and 

 alley in the native town, where they spend the short 

 remainder of their days in little iron and tin prisons, 

 with a cold, cutting wire to perch on, and nothing to 

 do. Happily, a great many escape through the care- 

 lessness of their keepers, and, though the short, 

 ragged tail, dirty plumage, and uneasy manner, betray 

 them for a time, they soon adapt themselves again 

 to wild life. 



This bird scarcely needs description. The female 

 is green all over, while the male has a rosy collar and 

 black necktie. The beak is coral red. The scientific 

 name of this species is Paloeornis torquatus* There 

 is a much larger bird, Paloeornis eupatria, called 

 by Jerdon the Alexandrine Parrakeet, because it is 

 the kind which Alexander the Great is supposed 

 to have taken back with him from India. It is 

 much the same in colour, except that the male has a 

 patch of red on each wing and all the tints are coarser. 

 It learns to speak better than the common one, and a 

 good many are kept in Bombay as pets. Of course 

 they escape too, but they have never effected a settle- 

 ment in the island. Then there is the lovely little 

 Rose-headed, or, as Blandford aptly names it, Blossom- 

 headed, Parrakeet (P. rosa). The whole head of the male 

 is rosy, that of the female plum-blue, and the beak 

 in both sexes is light yellow. These are also on 

 sale in the Crawford Market in hundreds, and I do 

 not know why one never sees them wild in Bombay. 

 But the little Blossom-head is nowhere a garden 

 bird. It swarms on the coast, ravaging the corn- 

 fields, in spite of little boys on mutchans slinging 



