THE PARROT. 125 



however, will make his presence felt wherever he is^ 

 and his familiar squeal over head is one of the 

 pleasantest sounds of a cold-weather morning. It is 

 a curious fact that Parrots do not in their wild state 

 indulge their imitative faculties at all unlike the 

 clever starling tribe ; and so thousands of generations- 

 of them live and die in their native jungles without 

 ever fully exercising ears and tongue fully as acute, 

 in many cases, as our own. I say tongue conven- 

 tionally, of course, for in Parrots, as in other birds, 

 the tongue hafe nothing to do with the production 

 of the sounds uttered, human or otherwise ; the 

 bird's vocal organ being the syrinx, which is situated 

 at the base of the windpipe, where that organ forks 

 before entering the lungs. 



I have not seen any other kind of Parrot wild about 

 here, but the large " Eock Parrot " {Palceornis 

 nepalensis) is said to occur in that condition, and is at 

 all events such a very common captive as to require 

 notice. In the difference between different sexes 

 and ages, and in its general colour and form it 

 resembles the ordinary Parrot, but it is not only 

 larger, but of a much duller green, and always 

 possesses a splash of red on the wing. Its plumage 

 never seems to incline to yellow like the smaller, 

 Parrot's, although we have in the museum a skin of 

 the very nearly allied Andaman large Parrot 



