XVIII.— THE TARROT. 



" Fraught with antics as the Indian bird."— Wordsworth. 



The Parrot may fairly claim to be the Indian bird 

 far excellence, for the peacock and fowl had been so 

 long known in Europe, when he arrived to gladden 

 the hearts of Greek bird fanciers, that they had found 

 their way into mythology ; and we hardly think of 

 them as foreigners ourselves. But the Parrot, always 

 a captive and renowned for its power of speech, has 

 always remained a type of what is gorgeous, tropical, 

 and strange. This is right enough in a way, for Parrots 

 are very unlike any other birds, European or 

 otherwise, and they are pre-eminently characteristic 

 of warm regions all round the world. But India is 

 not rich in species of Parrots, nor Africa either ; the 

 great haunts of these birds are South America 

 and the island continent of Australia and its 

 satellites. And here we see the hardiness of the 

 Parrot constitution ; a large parrakeet {Cyanolyseus 

 fotagonus) haunts the bleak plains of Patagonia ; 

 a smaller one {Cyanorhamphus unicohr) crawls 

 among the tussock-grass on the remote Antipodes 

 Island, so much in fear of the violent winds 



