THE PARROT. 121 



Hundreds of the birds, both old and young, come 

 into the market annually, and seem to find a ready 

 ,sale, and certainly this Parrot is the commonest pet 

 bird here, and is very popular in Europe also. In 

 -Calcutta, as everyone must have noticed, it is as 

 frequently chained as caged, often, alas, with a chain 

 which would hold an ordinary terrier ! Poor Polly 

 indeed ! a heavy chain and an iron swing, or a small 

 hemispherical cage, form a sad exchange for the 

 tree tops and the blue sky. Somehow I always 

 pity a caged Parrot now, although Parrots do so well 

 in cages, and their slow crawling movements seem 

 so excellently suited for a captive's narrow bounds. 



But a wild Parrot shows one that half the bird's 

 time is passed in its swift graceful flight — a flight, 

 by the way, that is strikingly difEerent from that of 

 most land-birds, the downward-pointed wings, with 

 their sharp decisive stroke, at once recalling some 

 plover, sandpiper, or other shore-haunting fowl. 

 Like these aquatics, also, Polly carries her feet stowed 

 astern and not tucked up to the breast, though it 

 -took me a long time to find this out when I was 

 investigating this point, with a view to discovering 

 'the reason for this difference in habit in birds — for 

 some kinds carry their feet forward and others behind 

 in the most inexplicable way. But one day a Parrot, 

 .urged perhaps by a desire to examine its defunct 



