The Zoologist— October, 1808. 1399 



such a supply of caloric — much beyond that of animals — that cold 

 rarely kills them ; though I do not mean to say that they like it. It 

 certainly, however, is curious that these African parrots, Bengal par- 

 rakeets, and lories from the Philippine Islands have never appeared to 

 suffer even from our frost and snow. I may observe the gardener de- 

 clares that the gray parrots foresee a storm, and often take refuge before 

 it comes in their glass-houses. 



Nothing can be more striking than the contrast between the plumage 

 of the parrots when they first come, and its appearance after they have 

 been flying about for a few weeks, when it acquires a gloss and glitter 

 like that of burnished metal. Variety of food is not less essential to 

 them than abundance, and they also require exercise. Some of them, 

 who cannot fly, or who prefer moping at home, always look woebegone, 

 and are gloomy and irritable ; while the industrious Pollies who fly 

 about and help to earn their own livelihood are cheerful, contented and 

 kindly. It is curious how clearly they have the idea of property and 

 possession. An old parrot who always sits in the ivy on an old wall 

 is just as indignant if any other parrot seeks to share in his part of it 

 as my cook would be if some of you insisted on taking up your resi- 

 dence in my kitchen. Generally, however, they pay the utmost respect 

 to each other's prescriptive rights. 



We usually have got our parrots from Mr. Jamrach, a Jew, who has 

 a shop near Wapping, and who buys all kinds of animals from the 

 ships that come into the docks : his shop is a queer place, and well 

 worth a visit. One day when I was there he had in his little back 

 yard a crocodile twelve feet long, and another, a baby crocodile, which 

 I bought and kept alive for some time, about eighteen inches long; 

 and sundry bears, lions, monkeys, racoons and other animals, while all 

 the rooms in the house itself were given up to birds, mostly of the 

 parrot kind, and the screaming and shrieking is terrific. Every now 

 and then there is a perfect avalanche of the little green parroquets from 

 Australia, and on one occasion Mr. Jamrach had 3000 of them in his 

 bed-rooms. Parrots that can talk fetch a high price, so we rarely buy 

 them, as we don't want pets ; moreover, they very soon lose their 

 power of talking when they are out in the woods ; but sometimes they 

 learn to imitate other sounds. At my house in Surrey the jackdaws 

 build in boxes placed for them in the gables, and a gray parrot who 

 flies about has learned to imitate them exactly; while one of the 

 cockatoos can imitate the clucking of a hen so cleverly that no one 

 could conceive that it was not the fowl herself. A large Amazonian 



