594 BIRDS. 



tree intoxicates them, as well as wine and the smoke of tobacco, 

 which in taming, are often employed, to soften their fierceness and 

 render them more talkative. Their appetite for flesh is unnatural* 

 and when gratified, never fails to bring on diseases. Of all foods, 

 they are fondest of the carthamus or bastard saffron ; which, though 

 of a strongly purgative quality to man, agrees perfectly with their 

 constitution, and will fatten the Guinea parrot very quickly. 



Birds of this tribe are subject to disorders unknown to the rest of 

 the feathered tribes ; many of them die of the epilepsy and the gout. 

 They are, however, remarkable for longevity ; and there are some 

 well-attested instances of their having lived from fifty to sixty years. 

 From twenty to thirty years, however, may be considered as the 

 common period which these birds live, when well kept : after which 

 time the bill becomes generally so much hooked, that they are 

 deprived of the power of taking food. They commonly breed 

 in the hollow parts of old trees which have begun to rot, without 

 forming a nest ; and sometimes availing themselves of the labour of 

 the woodpecker, they seize upon the hole which it has industriously 

 scooped out. The larger kinds lay only two eggs, but they bring 

 forth twice a year. The smaller kinds, which from their weakness 

 are more exposed to devastation, are probably more prolific ; for 

 nature constantly replenishes those species which are most easily 

 destroyed, by conferring upon them a superior degree of fecundity. 

 As it is only when the parrots are taken young that they can be 

 successfully tamed, the savages commonly take them while in the 

 nest. They sometimes, however, catch them when full grown, for 

 food, and for their feathers, which they convert into valuable arti- 

 cles of dress. For this purpose, they have various contrivances. 

 They sometimes mark the trees upon which they perch, and during 

 night bring sulphurous substances, which they burn around them, 

 and by the fumes of which the birds are suffocated, and fall to the 

 ground. In some places they stun them with arrows wrapped at 

 the point with cotton ; in others, they cut down the tree in which 

 the nest is built. In New Spain, where the feather constitutes an 

 article of regular commerce among the natives, they take possession 

 of a number of trees where the parrots breed, and which they trans- 

 mit as an inheritance from father to son. 



The largest species are the maccaws ; and when these parrots were 

 first brought into Europe, their beautiful plumage and their large 

 and majestic form created universal admiration. Aldrovandus firs* 



