32 CASSELLS BOOK OF BIRDS. 



As it is not always possible to find a trunk whose interior has been hollowed by some friendly 

 woodpecker, the parrots are often forced to excavate their own nesting-places, and then it is that they 

 show what an available instrument their beak can be. It is the female who almost, but not exclusively, 

 makes the hole ; at this work she shows herself most skilful ; she hangs, like a woodpecker, from 

 the bark, and gnaws, rather than cuts away, one shred after another, until the dwelling is completed ; 

 this labour often occupies several weeks, but with patience the end is at length attained. The hole is 

 the principal matter, the nest does not need much making ; a few chips picked from the ground are 

 all that is required as a bed on which to deposit the eggs ; even a hole that leaves much to be desired 

 in the way of convenience will content these very easily satisfied parents. " From the white stem of 

 a Trimi-palm," says Poppig, " I once saw a brilliant light blue tail depending ; it betrayed the 

 Yellow Arara, who was busy with her strong beak enlarging a woodpecker's hole, out of which her 

 ell-long tail hangs whilst brooding." The female generally sits alone, and is fed and entertained by 

 her mate during the 'whole time of incubation. 



Among the smaller kinds of these birds, the brooding season lasts from eighteen to twenty, and 

 with others nineteen, twenty-three, or twenty-five days. 



The young are perfectly helpless when they leave the egg, but their growth and development is 

 rapid. At first they are very imperfectly fledged, but in from five to six days the feathers begin to 

 sprout, and they open their eyes within eight or ten days of their birth. The warbling Grass Parrakeet 

 leaves the nest thirty-three days after being hatched, and may be seen flying about two days later. 

 Both parents feed the young and tend them for some time after they have left the nest. 



The food, if corn, is softened in the parent's crop before it is put into the beak of the young bird. 

 Schomburgk tells us that a pair of parrots which had settled near his encampment in the wood, only 

 fed their young twice in the day, once at eleven in the forenoon and again about five in the evening. 

 As soon as they arrived they perched upon a branch near the hole, and if they fancied themselves 

 watched would sit quite still, until they thought that a favourable opportunity occurred for stealing in 

 unobserved. 



The parents are by no means deficient in tender care for their progeny, and will shield their 

 offspring from danger with most self-sacrificing courage. Some species will attach themselves with 

 great tenderness to deserted birds ; not merely to those of their own family, but to any helpless 

 orphan, even although belonging to another species. 



Cunningham tells us that the surgeon of the Trito?i — a ship plying between England and 

 Australia — had a Blue Mountain Parrot, and a very beautiful smaller one, that he had taken from its 

 nest so young that it was unable to feed itself. Under these circumstances the elder bird undertook 

 to give it food, and watched over it with the greatest anxiety. The mutual friendship of these creatures 

 seemed to increase as time went on ; most part of the day was spent in caresses ; they trimmed each 

 other's feathers, and the old bird would spread her wings over her little charge with every indication 

 of solicitude. Indeed, their affectionate demonstrations soon became so noisy that they had to be 

 separated, in order that the passengers might not be annoyed, and the young one was placed in a 

 cabin with several others. 



After a two months' separation rne elder parrot succeeded in escaping, and was guided to the 

 cabin by the voice of its young prote'ge, to whose cage it clung. From this time the friends were not 

 parted, but a fortnight later the young one died, in consequence of a wound caused by a fall. Its 

 friend was silent from that hour, and did not long survive its little charge. 



Parrots attain their full beauty of plumage, and commence laying by the time they are two years 

 old ; some of the smaller kinds breed within the first twelve months, but, notwithstanding this, live for 

 many years, and have been known to long survive the family in which they passed their youth. 



