412 PARROTS 



pass from the sweet toDes of its fair mistress to the rougli 

 accents of its first teacher. 



The grey parrot not only imitates the voice of man, but has 

 also a strong desire to do so, which he manifests by his atten- 

 tion in Hstening, and by the continuous efforts he makes to 

 repeat the phrases he has heard. He seems to impose upon 

 himself a daily task, which even occupies him during sleep, 

 as he speaks in his dreams. His memory is astonishing, so that 

 a cardinal once gave a hundred gold crowns for one of these 

 birds that correctly repeated a long prayer ; and M. de la Borde 

 told BufFon he had seen one that was fully able to perform the 

 duties of a ship's chaplain. 



All parrots are more or less susceptible of education, and, 

 particularly when caught young, grow very much attached to 

 the master that feeds them. Those that are sent to Europe are 

 generally taken from the nest, and have thus never experienced 

 the sweets of freedom ; but they are also frequently caught full 

 grown. The American Indians know how to strike them with 

 small arrows, whose points are blunted with cotton, so as to 

 stun without killing them ; or else, under the trees on which 

 they perch, they light a fire of strong-smelling weeds, whose 

 vapours cause them to drop to the ground. These captives 

 are frequently extremely stubborn; but blowing the fumes 

 of tobacco into their face until they fall asleep, is an infallible 

 remedy to cure them of their obstinacy, this operation being 

 so little to their taste that it need hardly ever be repeated 

 twice. 



Parrots are known to attain a very great age. One that was 

 brought to Florence in 1633, and belonged to the Grrand 

 Duchess of Tuscany, died in 1 743, having thus lived more than 

 a century in exile. 



Although preeminently tropical, like the colibris, several 

 parrots range far within the temperate zone, as they are found 

 in the Southern hemisphere at the Straits of Magellan and on 

 the Macquarie Islands, and in the Northern, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Cairo and in Kentucky, where the Carolina parrot ia 

 often seen in great numbers during the summer. 



The parrots are subdivided into numerous groups and species, 

 chiefly according to the various forms of their bills and tails. 

 The short-tailed parrots of the Old World mostly display bright 



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