THE PARROT. 



they sit, he only hears their prattle, without being able to see 

 a single bird ; he looks round him, sensible that his game is 

 within gun-shot in abundance, but is mortified to the last 

 degree that it is impossible to see them. Unfortunately for 

 these little animals, they are restless, and ever on the wing, so 

 that in flying from one tree to another, he has but too frequent 

 opportunities of destroying them ; for as soon as they have 

 stripped the tree on which they sat of all its berries, some one 

 of them flies off to another ; and, if that be found fit for the 

 purpose, it gives a loud call, which all the rest resort to. 

 That is the opportunity the fowler has long been waiting for ; 

 he fires in among the flock, while they are yet on the wing ; 

 and he seldom fails of bringing down a part of them. But it 

 is singular enough to see them when they find their compact- 

 ions fallen. They set up a loud outcry, as if they were chiding 

 their destroyer, and do not cease 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 flocks of parrots 

 persecute them with their unceasing screaming, and devour 

 whatever fruits they attempt to produce by art in their little 

 gardens. In other places they are not so destructive, but suf- 

 ficiently 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 parrots seen 

 in the burning regions of Ethiopia ; in the East Indies they 

 are of the largest size ; in South America they are docile and 

 talkative ; in all the islands of the Pacific Sea and the Indian 

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

 to the splendor of those woods which nature has dressed in 

 eternal green. 



