PSITTACUS ERITHACUS. 175 



I have said so much of this lady, both because she was an instance of 

 one who with nothing but evil around, under circumstances of very great 

 difficulty, in the courts of Louis XIV. and Charles II., escaped, while many 

 did not, and also on account of her historic bird. Moreover the kindness of 

 her disposition is evinced by the name of the estate, " Lennox-love," 

 continued to the present time. 



Returning to the Grey Parrot, and Parrots in general, at page 170 I have 

 mentioned Livingstone's opinion as to their being left-sided. Mr. R. A. Proctor, 

 in ' Science Byways,' p. 328, has the following note : — " Birds, and especially 

 Parrots, show right-sidedness. Dr. W. Ogle has found that few Parrots perch 

 on the left leg. Now Parrots have that part at least of the faculty of speech 

 which depends on the memory of successive sounds, and of the method of 

 reproducing such imitation of them as a Parrot's powers permit ; and it is 

 remarkable that their left brain receives more blood and is better developed 

 than the right brain. So far. Dr. Brown Sequard on this point." The 

 author goes into the discussion of the duality of the brain ; but the subject 

 is too long to follow here. 



Parrots appear to have been held in general estimation in the time of 

 Charles II. ; for his Queen, Catherine of Braganza, had a Parrot-keeper at a 

 salary of £36 per annum, while the Maids of Honour received only £10 a 

 year each, and " the Mother of the Maids " £20 per annum. Therefore the 

 custodian of the Parrots was better paid, by £16, than the lady who held the 

 very responsible post of care-taker of the Maids of Honour — as I gather from 

 Miss Strickland (p. 439), 



2 B 



