THE PARROTS 117 



quite uncanny coming from a bird, even a bird so wise- 

 looking as he. 



He comes of a long-lived race. Fran9ois Levaillant, 

 the eighteenth-century traveller, mentions one which he 

 knew had lived thirty-two years in the house of a Dutch- 

 man named Huyser, at Amsterdam, and had spent forty- 

 one years previously in the home of this man's uncle. At 

 the age of sixty its wonderful memory began to fail. At 

 sixty-five its moulting ceased to be a regular yearly event, 

 and when Levaillant saw the poor bird it looked very 

 forlorn and infirm, as well it might at such a venerable 

 age. It had lost its memory and it was nearly blind ; and 

 its owners treated it as an invalid, giving it, from time to 

 time, biscuits soaked in wine. 



Sometimes a Grey Parrot will wear a tattered and 

 " threadbare " look while still far from old age. For certain 

 unwise forms of diet will bring on an uncomfortable rest- 

 lessness which makes the bird peck out its own feathers. 

 Mr. J. G. Wood knew of one which must have looked 

 amazingly funny, for, having pecked out every feather 

 that it could reach with its beak, it presented the unusual 

 sight of a full-plumaged head and a body as bare as that 

 of a plucked fowl ! 



The OWL PARROT belongs to New Zealand, where 

 the Maoris call him Kakapo. He is about the size of a 

 raven, with a dark-green coat mottled with black, with 

 some yellow markings, and a rather flat face, from which a 

 curved owl-like beak stands out rather prominently. 

 Like the owl, too, he wakes up after sunset and " lies low" 

 during the hours of daylight. Hence he is often called 

 the Night Parrot. 



He is so weak on the wing that he may be said to be a 

 non-flying bird. He can mount up into trees, but greatly 



