i8 BOMBAY DUCKS 



mon form, which haunts most of our compounds in 

 India, is known to men of science as the rose-ringed 

 paroquet, or Palaornis torquatus. The grass-green 

 plumage of this species must be familiar to every one in 

 England, for the bird is on sale in every fancier's shop. 

 The two sexes do not wear exactly similar plumage. 

 The male has a rose-coloured collar and a black neck- 

 tie, while his wife has, by way of a collar, to put up 

 with an emerald-green ring round her neck, and, being 

 a mere woman, is obliged to go through life without the 

 luxury of a necktie. 



If there be anything in phrenology, the green parrot 

 must have the bump of destructiveness very largely 

 developed. The bird is never so happy as when it is 

 destroying the crop sown by some poor raiyat; and, since 

 parrots are restrained by neither law nor a moral sense, 

 there is no hindrance to their self-indulgence, except the 

 small boys who are told off to watch the crops ; but 

 these urchins only serve to add zest to parrot existence. 



Polly's larcenies would lose half their charm had 

 not the thief the pleasure of dodging the ill-aimed 

 stones of the small watchmen. The methods of green 

 parrots are copied from those of Indian jungle folk, or 

 perhaps the converse is the case. Of this each man 

 must judge for himself. It is for me but to state the 

 sober fact that if an unsophisticated villager desires the 

 wherewithal to build him a house, and if the aforesaid 

 villager lives in the neighbourhood of a "reserved 

 forest," he forthwith betakes himself into the said forest 

 and proceeds to cut down the twelve most promising 

 saplings upon which he can lay his axe. 



