232 - HISTORY OF 



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 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 hun- 

 dred kinds now known, not one of which natu- 

 rally 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 Alexan- 

 der 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 Gaganda, 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 sometimes struck by a 



