conversely the monkeys and parrots. In 

 other words, both types grew up side by 

 side in mutual dependence, and evolved 

 themselves pari passu for one another's 

 benefit. Without the fruits there could 

 be no fruit-eaters ; and without the fruit- 

 eaters to dispense their seeds, there could 

 not be any great number of fruits. 



Most of the parrots very much resem- 

 ble the monkeys and other tropical fruit- 

 eaters in their habits and manners. They 

 are gregarious, mischievous and noisy. 

 They have no moral sense, and are fond 

 of practical jokes. They move about in 

 flocks, screeching aloud as they go, and 

 alight together on some tree well covered 

 with berries. No doubt- they herd to- 

 gether for the sake of protection, and 

 screech both to keep the flock in a body 

 and to strike consternation into the 

 breasts of their enemies. When danger 

 threatens, the first bird that perceives it 

 sounds a note of warning; and in a mo- 

 ment the whole troupe is on the wing at 

 once, vociferous and eager, roaring forth 

 a song in their own tongue, which may 

 be interpreted to mean that they are 

 ready to fight if it is necessary. 



The common gray parrot, the best 

 known in confinement of all his kind, and 

 unrivalled as an orator for his graces of 

 speech, is a native of West Africa. He 

 feeds in a general way upon palm-nuts, 

 bananas, mangoes, and guavas, but he is 

 by no means averse, if opportunity offers, 

 to the Indian corn of the industrious na- 

 tive. It is only in confinement that this 

 bird's finer qualities come out, and that it 

 develops into a speechmaker of distin- 

 guished attainments. 



A peculiar and exceptional offshoot of 

 the parrot group is the brush-tongued 

 lory, several species of which are com- 

 mon in Australia and India. These in- 

 teresting birds are parrots which have a 

 resemblance to humming birds. Flitting 

 about from tree to tree with great rapid- 

 ity, they thrust their long extensible 

 tongues, penciled with honey-gathering 

 hairs, into the tubes of many big tropical 

 blossoms. The lories, indeed, live entire- 

 ly on nectar, and they are so common in 

 the region they have made their own that 

 the larger flowers there present the ap- 

 pearance of having been developed with 

 a special view to their tastes and habits, 



as well as to the structure of their peculiar 

 brush-like honey-collector. In most par- 

 rots the mouth is dry and the tongue 

 horny ; but in the lories it is moist and 

 much more like the same organ in the 

 humming-birds and the sun-birds. The 

 prevalence of very large and brilliantly- 

 colored flowers in the Malayan region 

 must be set down for the most part to 

 the selective action of the color-loving, 

 brush-tongued parrots. 



The Australian continent and New 

 Zealand, as everybody knows, are the 

 countries where everything goes by con- 

 traries. And it is here that the parrot 

 group has developed some of its most 

 curious offshoots. One would imagine 

 beforehand that no two birds could be 

 more unlike in every respect than the 

 gaudy, noisy, gregarious cockatoos and 

 the sombre, nocturnal, solitary owls. Yet 

 the New Zealand owl-parrot is a lory 

 which has assumed all the appearances 

 and habits of an owl. A lurker in the twi- 

 light or under the shades of night, bur- 

 rowing for its nest in holes in the ground, 

 it has dingy brown plumage like the owls, 

 with an undertone of green to bespeak its 

 parrot origin ; while its face is entirely 

 made up of two great disks, surrounding 

 the eyes, which succeed in giving it a 

 most marked and unmistakable owl-like 

 appearance. 



Why should a parrot so strangly dis- 

 guise itself and belie its ancestry? The 

 reason is not difficult to discover. It 

 found a place for itself ready made in na- 

 ture. New Zealand is a remote and 

 sparsely-stocked island, peopled by vari- 

 ous forms of life from adjacent but still 

 distant continents. There are no danger- 

 ous enemies there. Here, then, was a 

 great opportunity for a nightly prowler. 

 The owl-parrot, with true business in- 

 stinct, saw the opening thus clearly laid 

 before it, and took to a nocturnal and 

 burrowing life, with the natural conse- 

 quence that those forms survived which 

 were dingy in color. Unlike the owls, 

 however, the owl-parrot, true to the veg- 

 etarian instincts of the whole lory race, 

 lives almost entirely upon sprigs of 

 mosses and other creeping plants. It is 

 thus essentially a ground bird ; and as it 

 feeds at night in a country possessing no 

 native beasts of prey, it has almost lost 



103 



