BIRDS AS PETS 389 



they soon become exceedingly fond of the exciting condiment." 

 Space forbids any attempt to describe the methods by which the 

 German fanciers of the Harz valleys teach canaries the notes of 

 other birds, or even various tunes. 



Another well-known and extremely pretty cage -bird is the 

 Java Sparrow (Munia orysivora), which has long been an object 

 of domestication, and is distinguished by its extreme tameness. 



On account of their intelligence, sprightliness, and imitative 

 powers, the Raven, Jackdaw, Magpie, and Starling appeal to 

 many persons more than Canaries and other small singing-birds. 

 They are not, however, so frequently seen in captivity, partly on 

 account of the thievish propensities of all but the last. 



PARROTS (PSITTACI). Among the many species of this group 

 which are kept in captivity, the common Grey Parrot (Psittacus 

 erithacus), native to tropical Africa, probably stands highest in 

 public estimation. This is partly due to its extreme liveliness, 

 but chiefly on account of the clever way in which it learns frag- 

 ments of human speech, and imitates familiar sounds, such as the 

 drawing of corks and the like. The often singularly malapropos 

 nature of the remarks and sounds greatly increase their charm. 



Parrots have been known and appreciated for more than two 

 thousand years as clever imitative birds, often with brilliant 

 plumage. Some of the Indian species appear to have been 

 those first known to Europeans, while the resources of Africa 

 were exploited later on. Regarding this, Newton (in A Dic- 

 tionary of Birds] speaks as follows: "That Africa had parrots 

 does not seem to have been discovered by the ancients till long 

 after, as Pliny tells us (vi, 29) that they were first met with by 

 explorers employed by Nero beyond the limits of Upper Egypt. 

 These birds, highly prized from the first, reprobated by the 

 moralist, and celebrated by more than one classical poet, as time 

 went on were brought in great numbers to Rome, and ministered 

 in various ways to the luxury of the age. Not only were they 

 lodged in cages of tortoise-shell and ivory, with silver wires, but 

 they were professedly esteemed as delicacies for the table, and 

 one emperor is said to have fed his lions upon them. . . . With 

 the decline of the Roman Empire the demand for parrots in 

 Europe lessened, and so the supply dwindled, yet all knowledge 

 of them was not wholly lost, and they are occasionally mentioned 

 by one writer or another until in the fifteenth century began that 



VOL. IV. 120 



