THE PARROT. 189 



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 to scoop, and to make the hole sufficiently wide and 

 convenient ; but it sometimes happens 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, that the smallest animals are always the most pro- 

 lific ; for being, from their natural weakness, more subject to 

 devastation, nature finds it necessary to replenish the species 

 by superior fecundity. In general, however, the number of 

 their eggs is stinted to two, like those of the pigeon, and they 

 are about the same size. They are always marked with lit- 

 tle specks, like those of a partridge ; and some travellers assure 

 us, that they are always found in the trunks of the tallest, 

 straightest, and the largest trees. The natives of those coun- 

 tries, who have little else to do, are very assiduous in spying 

 out the places where the parrot is seen to nestle, and generally 

 come with great joy to inform the Europeans, if there be any, 

 of the discovery. As those birds have always the greatest do- 

 cility that are taken young, such a nest is often considered as 

 worth taking some trouble to be possessed of; and, for this 

 purpose, the usual method of coming at the young is, by cut- 

 ting down the tree. In the fall of the tree it often happens 

 that the young parrots are killed ; but if one of them survives 

 the shock, it is considered as a sufficient recompense. 



Such is the avidity with which these birds are sought when 

 young ; for it is known they always speak best when their 

 ear has not been anticipated by the harsh notes of the wild 

 ones. But as the natives are not able upon all occasions to 

 supply the demand for young ones, they are contented to take 



