192 THE PARROT. 



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 a 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 un- 

 heard-of luxuries, they at last found out others in Gaganda, 

 an island of Ethiopia, which they considered as an extraor- 

 dinary discovery. 



Parrots have usually the same disorders with other birds ; 

 and they have one or two peculiar to their kind. They are 

 sometimes 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. 



