88 PRETTY POLL, 



tint sometimes changes into light or deep blue, as in some 

 macaws ; into pure yellow or rich orange, as in some of 

 the American macaw-parrots ; into purple, grey or dove- 

 colour, as in some American, African, and Indian species ; 

 into the purest crimson, as in some of the lories ; into 

 rosy-white and pure white, as in the cockatoos; and 

 into a deep purple, ashy or black, as in several Papuan, 

 Australian, and Mascarene species. There is in fact 

 hardly a single distinct and definable colour that cannot be 

 fairly matched among the 39C species of known parrots. 

 Their habits, too, are such as to bring them prominently 

 before the eye. They usually feed in flocks ; they are 

 noisy, and so attract attention ; they love gardens, 

 orchards, and open sunny places ; they wander about 

 far in search of food, and towards sunset return home- 

 ward in noisy flocks, or in constant pairs. Their forms 

 and motions are often beautiful and attractive. The 

 immensely long tails of the macaws and the more 

 slender tails of the Indian parroquets, the fine crest of 

 the cockatoos, the swift flight of many of the smaller 

 species, and the graceful motions of the little love-birds 

 and allied forms, together with their affectionate natures, 

 aptitude for domestication, and power of mimicry, com- 

 bine to render them at once the most conspicuous and 

 the most attractive of all the specially tropical forms of 

 bird life.' 



I have purposely left to the last the one point about 

 parrots which most often attracts the attention of the 

 young, the gay, the giddy, and the thoughtless : I mean 

 their power of mimicry in human language. And I 

 believe I am iustitied in passing it over lightly. For in 



