396 FOREIGN BIRDS. 



The Illinois-Parrot, in bright silky green, 

 With fine yellow tints, blue reflections was seen ; 



after which the bill, it is said, becomes so much hooked that 

 they lose the power of taking food. 



Parrots build, for the most part, in the hollow of rotten 

 trees; when the tree is not fully rotten, and the hole not large 

 enough for their reception, they widen it with their bills ; the 

 nest is lined with feathers. They can only be successfully 

 tamed when taken young. The flesh of parrots, it is said, 

 always partakes of the peculiar taste of their food ; some 

 of the small tribes of Paroquets are occasionally sought after by 

 the savages (at the time they feed upon the ripe gmva) as deli- 

 cate food. 



An account has lately appeared in the newspapers of a 

 Parrot that died in this country at the age of seventy-seven. 



The taste of parrots appears to be more acute than that oi 

 most other birds, they being more ch/)ice in the selection of 

 parts of the food which is given them, than the generality of 

 birds. 



Parrots have, from the splendour of their colourg, and from 

 their loquacity, much excited the attention of mankind. A 

 poem entitled Ver-Vert, or the Nunnery Parrot, written in French, 

 by Gresset, has also numerous admirers; it was translated 

 into easy verse by Cooper, and since by Dr. Geddes ; the first 

 translation is to be preferred : 



" Beauteous he was, and debonnair, 

 Light, spruce, inconstant, gay, and free, 

 And unreserved as youngsters are, 

 Ere age brings on hypocrisy ; 

 In short a bird from prattling merit, 

 Worthy a convent to inherit." 



Canto 1, 



