THE BIRDS OF THE AVLARY 



281 



peacocks. In the present clay parrot s<)U[i is 

 the choice dish of Cuba. 



A parrot was seen for the first time in ICng- 

 land ni 1504; and in 1704 there appeared in 

 Amsterdam a parrot of a species still very lare, 

 the black parrot of Ah-w Guinea. Nowadays 

 the parrot is universally known and esteemed 

 as a house bird, because his sociable humor 

 and his gift of speech, together with the inter- 

 est he takes in the members of the household 

 and their doings, make hmi really very amusing 



Thf. W.^vv P.\k()()ui-.t 



and interesting. In aviaries the various exist- 

 ing species, of which many ha\-e a truly Oriental 

 magnificence of color, are a joy to the eye, and 

 form a brilliant collection that 

 can hardly be surpassed. The 

 innumerable species now 

 acclimated and bred in many 

 countries are difficult to 

 describe with precision. We 

 know the princij^al species to 

 be the gray parrot, or jako 

 (Psittaciis crit/iaciis), with its 

 astonishing facility in speech, 

 the gray Amazon with yellow 

 head and blue forehead, \'ery 

 popular in seaports, the cock- 

 atoo with the great curved 

 beak, the pink cockatoo of un- 

 certain temper, but cheap, the 

 white-tufted species, and that 

 with a yellow tuft. 



C'lH.w Paroiiukt, or Poll Parrot 



Among the smaller parrots with l<jng tails 

 is the Xcw Holland{Psittactis Xovac IJollandiae), 

 a very beautiful aviary bird which is particularly 

 easy to feed. All the smaller parrots are espe- 

 cially suited to a\-iaries, which tlie}- fill with 

 ga)'ety and color. The undulated parrot (Psitta- 

 cus undiilatus), so called, can be bought very 

 cheap ; since Gould imijorted them into Europe 



The Grf.ex P.\ro(,u'F-T 



Digitized by IVIicrosoft® 



