THE PARROT. 99 



that Parrots can live almost anywhere and anyhow, given 

 ground habitable by land-birds at all ; and this makes it 

 the more curious that in those most richly varied collec- 

 tions of animal life, the African and Indian faunas, the 

 Parrots make no very great show. We have here no 

 gorgeous lories or macaws, no snowy and crested cockatoos 

 hardly anything, in fact, but che long-tailed green 

 parrakeets, of which our common Ring-necked species 

 (PalcEornis torquatus), is far the most abundant, and 

 extends all over India, spreading East to Cochin China. 

 It does not ascend the hills as a rule, and it likes cultivated 

 ground, where it has the opportunity of using holes in 

 buildings, as well as in trees, for nesting purposes, 

 paying for the accommodation afforded by constituting 

 itself an economic pest of the first water by its greedy and 

 wasteful assaults on grain and fruit. It must be admitted, 

 however, as an extenuating circumstance, that " poor 

 Polly's " popularity as a cage-bird outweighs a good deal 

 of damage done, for a good many rupees must be turned 

 over annually by those who deal in Parrots. Hundreds of 

 the birds, both old and young, come into the market 

 annually, and seem to find a ready sale, and certainly this 

 Parrot is the commonest pet bird here, and is very popular 

 in Europe, also. In Calcutta, as everyone must have 

 noticed, it is as frequently chained as caged, often, alas, 

 with a chain which would hold an ordinary terrier ! Poor 

 Polly indeed ! a heavy chain and an iron swing, or a small 

 hemispherical cage, form a sad exchange for the tree tops 

 and the blue sky. Somehow I always pity a caged Parrot 

 now, although Parrots do so well in cages, and^their slow 



