The Zoologist — October, 1868. 1395 



large and small as simply matters of degree, not essential properties 

 or characters, and therefore that they have no bearing on the 

 question. 



Edward Newman. 



(To be continued.) 



Acclimatisation of Parrots. By Charles Buxton, Esq., M.P.* 



I have undertaken to tell you a little about the experiment that 

 has been tried here of letting parrots fly wild about the place; but, 

 though it has been a source of great interest and amusement to us, 

 1 much fear that there is very little to relate that could be thought 

 worthy of the attention, even in their holiday moments, of an associa- 

 tion for the advancement of science. Nor can I honestly say that the 

 attempt to acclimatise these birds — that is to say, to establish them as 

 an addition to our English fauna— has in that respect been attended 

 by success. It is true that they have several times made nests, and on 

 five of these occasions the young ones have been brought to maturity ; 

 and, " were it not for those vile guns," the birds would flourish 

 extremely, for illness and death from natural causes would seem to be 

 almost unknown among them. But, unhappily, they share in many 

 of the characteristics of human nature, and in this one above all, that 

 they do not know when they are well off, and every now and then 

 they are seized with a desire to see the world, and take flight to a 

 distance, twelve or fifteen miles perhaps, and sometimes much more; 

 and then they are almost sure to fall a prey to some gamekeeper or 

 lad who is keeping crows off, and who is astonished by seeing these 

 brilliant apparitions among the trees. As regards their breeding, a pair 

 of cockatoos led the way by most unsuccessfully attempting to make 

 a nest in one of the chimneys ; but before it was half finished it gave 

 way, and the nest and cockatoos fell to the bottom. It being summer 

 time, they were only discovered after spending a day and a night 

 among the soot. When they were brought out they looked like two 

 dwarf chimney-sweeps. They persevered, however, and made another 

 nest in one of the boxes that had been hung against the gables of the 

 house, in hopes of such an event; but though they laid two eggs, and 

 the hen cockatoo sat most perseveringly till September, it was all in 



* Read at the recent Meeting of the British Association at Norwich. 



