78 PRETTY POLL. 



same direction than the woodpeckers or the toucans ; for, 

 in addition to prehensile feet, they have also a highly- 

 developed prehensile bill, and within it a tongue which 

 acts in reality as an organ of touch. They use then- 

 crooked beaks to help them in climbing from branch to 

 branch ; and being thus provided alike with wings, legs, 

 hands, fingers, bill and tongue, they are in fact the most 

 truly arboreal of all known animals, and present in the 

 fullest and highest degree all the peculiar features of the 

 tree-haunting existence. 



Nor is that all. Alone among birds or mammals, the 

 parrots have the curious peculiarity of being able to move 

 the upper as well as the lower jaw. It is this strange 

 mobility of both the mandibles together, combined with 

 the crafty effect of the sideways glance from those 

 artful eyes, that gives the characteristic air of intelligence 

 and wisdom to the parrot's face. We naturally expect 

 so clever a bird to speak. And when it turns upon us 

 suddenly with a copy-book maxim, we are in no way 

 astonished at its surpassing smartness. 



Parrots are vegetarians ; with a single degraded 

 exception to whom I shall recur hereafter, Sir Henry 

 Thompson himself couldn't find fault with their regimen. 

 They live chiefly upon a light but nutritious diet of fruit 

 and seeds, or upon the abundant nectar of rich tropical 

 flowers. And it is mainly for the sake of getting at their 

 chosen food that they have developed the large and 

 powerful bills which characterise the family. You may 

 have perhaps noted that most tropical fruit-eaters, like 

 the hornbills and the toucans, are remarkable for the 

 size and strength of their beaks : if you haven't, I dare 



