Chap. XVIII. CHANGED CONDITIONS. 155 



an extinct Indian tribe, so that this bird preserved the sole relic of a lost 

 language. Even in this country there is reason to believe 39 that parrots 

 have lived to the age of nearly one hundred years; yet, though many 

 have been kept in Europe, they breed so rarely that the event has been 

 thought worth recording in the gravest publications. 40 According to 

 Bechstein 41 the African Psittacus erithaeus breeds oftener than any other 

 species : the P. macoa occasionally lays fertile eggs, but rarely succeeds in 

 hatching them; this bird, however, has the instinct of incubation some- 

 times so strongly developed, that it will hatch the eggs of fowls or pigeons. 

 In the Zoological Gardens and in the old Surrey Gardens some few species 

 have coupled, but, with the exception of three species of parrakeets, none 

 have bred. It is a much more remarkable fact that in Guiana parrots of 

 two kinds, as I am informed by Sir K. Schomburgk, are often taken from 

 the nests by the Indians and reared in large numbers ; they are so tame 

 that they fly freely about the houses, and come when called to be fed, like 

 pigeons ; yet he has never heard of a single instance of their breeding. 42 

 In Jamaica, a resident naturalist, Mr. K. Hill, 43 says, " no birds more readily 

 " submit to human dependence than the parrot-tribe, but no instance of a 

 " parrot breeding in this tame life has been known yet." Mr. Hill specifies 

 a number of other native birds kept tame in the West Indies, which never 

 breed in this state. 



The great pigeon family offers a striking contrast with parrots : in the 

 nine-year Eeport thirteen species are recorded as having bred, and, what is 

 more noticeable, only two were seen to couple without any result. Since 

 the above date every annual Eeport gives many cases of various pigeons 

 breeding. The two magnificent crowned pigeons (Goura coronata and 

 Victoria) produced hybrids ; nevertheless, of the former species more than 

 a dozen birds were kept, as I am informed by Mr. Crawfurd, in a park at 

 Penang, under a perfectly well-adapted climate, but never once bred. The 

 Columba migratoria in its native country, North America, invariably lays 

 two eggs, but in Lord Derby's menagerie never more than one. The same 

 fact has been observed with the 0. leucocephala.^ 



Gallinaceous birds of many genera likewise show an eminent capacity 

 for breeding under captivity. This is particularly the case with pheasants 

 yet our English species seldom lays more than ten eggs in confinement ; 

 whilst from eighteen to twenty is the usual number in the wild state. 40 

 With the Gallinacese, as with all other orders, there are marked and inex- 



39 Loudon's 'Mag. of Nat. History,' the numerous useful birds that are indi- 

 vol. ix., 1836, p. 317. geuous to Guiana, none are found to 



40 ' Me'moires du Museum d'Hist. propagate among the Indians ; yet the 

 Nat.,' torn. x. p. 314 : five cases of common fowl is reared in abundance 

 parrots breeding in France are here throughout the country." 



recorded. See also ' Eeport Brit. Assoc. 43 ' A Week at Port KoyaL' 1855, 



Zoolog.,' 1843. p. 7. 



41 ' Stubenvogel,' s. 105, 83. 4 * Audubon, ' American Ornithology,' 



42 Dr. Hancock remarks (' Charles- vol. v. pp. 552, 557. 



worth's Mag. of Nat. Hist.,' vol. ii., 1838, 45 Moubray on Poultry, 7th edit., p. 



p. 492), " it is singular that, amongst 133. 



