on early days of Aviculture.



69



In his Parrot volume (iii) Dr. Russ gives more details of the

early history of this bird, which it will be convenient to deal with.

He writes (p. 6):


“The old Egyptians did not know the Parrots and in their hiero¬

glyphics we find no sign or any indication of them. In like case were the

Israelites, at any rate research shows that the name of Parrot is never once

mentioned in the Bible. In the time of Alexander the Great they were intro¬

duced into Greece, for we are told, though there is some doubt about the

correctness of this statement, that one of his retinue brought with him from

India a species of Parrot, which he found was commonly kept tame among

the natives there. This species, according to Wagler, was the Psittacus

eupatrius of Linnasus, now popularly known as the ‘ Large Alexandrine

Parrakeet.’


“ As Aristotle [see Sundevall, ‘ Thierarten des Aristoteles ’ (Stockholm,

863) and Lenz, ‘ Zoologie der alten Grieehen und Bonier ’ (Gotha, 856)], gives

such a very short description of the Parrots, we may assume that he had but

very raiely seen one, for otherwise such a painstaking author as he would have

given a more satisfactory account. It was the Ring-neciced Parrakeet (P.

torquatus, Bodd.), also commonly nowadays known as the Small Alexan¬

drine, which the Romans knew, for this species was discovered in farthest

Syria by Diodorus Siculus, a contemporary of Julius Ciesar and Augustus, and

accurately described by Pliny, the first real description of a Parrot we have.

Martial tells us that they were kept in costly cages of silver, ebony and tortoise¬

shell, and were taught to speak human words, especially the name of Ciesar.

For their training special teachers were appointed and the price of a well-

trained bird often exceeded that of a slave.” *


“ On this the stern Censor, Marcus Portius Cato, thus chides them, ‘O



* As regards this training Pliny’s account is interesting, as given by Turner, the

earliest English writer on birds, in his ‘ Historia avium,’ 1544. This I take

from Mr. A. N. Evans’ ‘Turner on Birds,’ Cambridge, 1903, p. 151:

“Beyond all, Psittaci repeat men’s words, and even talk connectedly.

India sends this bird, which they call Psitace, with the whole body green

marked only by a scarlet ring upon the nape. It will pronounce ‘ Hail

Emperor,’ and any words it hears; it is especially sportive after wine.

The hardness of the head is the same as of the beak, and when the bird is

being taught to speak, it is beaten with an iron rod, else it leels not the

strokes. When it flies down it receives its weight upon its beak, and sup¬

ports itself thereon; and thus lightens itself to remedy the weakness of its

feet.'’ May we not take this account of what Parrots said in those days to

support as far as it goes the modern idea as to what was the Roman pro¬

nunciation of Latin. One can imagine a Parrot saying, “ Kaiser, Kesar, or

Kisar ” perfectly ; in fact, “ A’we Kiser ” is a parrot-language sentence pure

and simple, which is still doing duty as “ Kiss me,” “ Do kiss me,” or “ You

kissy,” but I have yet to hear a Parrot say, “ Ave Ciesar ” (“ Evy SIsar ”) as

I was taught in my schooldays. An initial S-sound seems beyond them, but

the hard K suits their voice to perfection ; I had almost said to a T.



