48 PURPLE-CAPPED LORY. 



We say "many of them" advisedly, for there are, of course, ex- 

 ceptions to every rule, and we have known individuals, belonging to 

 the most savagely disposed races, as tame and gentle as the most 

 amiable of Purple-caps; and conversely, no doubt, an odd member of 

 the latter species, as well as of others remarkable for good temper, 

 may now and then be met with of a sour and morose nature, and as 

 unlike the majority of their brethern as it is possible for them to be. 

 Nor is this such a wonderful thing when one considers it a little, 

 men have a national and an individual character, and disposition: thus 

 we English are stolid and uncommunicative, with an eye to the main 

 chance; while our neighbours across the Channel are gay, lively, im- 

 pulsive, not to say gushing; yet we occasionally meet with a Britisher, 

 to use an American phrase, who ought to have been born in France, 

 and a Frenchman, now and then, as phlegmatic and matter-of-fact as 

 any true-born Briton. 



It is just the same with birds: each individual has his private dis- 

 position as well as his national, or tribal characteristics, and every now 

 and then one meets with exceptions to the general rule, and to argue 

 from these individuals that all the race to which they belonged neces- 

 sarily resembled them in every point, is as manifestly absurd, as it 

 would be for a Chinese to maintain that the English were the liveliest 

 people in the world, because he chanced to fall in with a young Briton 

 full of life and spirits, brimming over with fun and jollity, a "jolly 

 dog" in fact, of which a few specimens yet linger in our midst, and 

 crop up unexpectedly now and then. 



Therefore to say that all the Cockatoos are noisy and spiteful, or 

 that all the Lories are amiable and well-behaved, because an individual, 

 or a few individuals with such dispositions have come under the speaker's 

 or writer's notice, would be every whit as unreasonable, and incorrect, 

 as to maintain that all Englishmen are lively, or all Frenchmen sad, 

 because they have met one or two persons of the former nation endowed 

 with a jovial, and two or three of the latter afflicted with a morose 

 and taciturn disposition. 



It is true a general or national characteristic, or series rather of 

 characteristics, runs through each race, but beneath, or rather inde- 

 pendent of, these peculiarities one meets with individuals possessed of 

 very different qualities in every country, and belonging to every race; 

 so that it behoves the student of character, whether in man or birds, 

 to beware of drawing general conclusions from a few observations, but 

 to reserve a final judgment until he has had sufficient data, drawn 

 from numerous observations, upon which to found his arguments 

 so securely that no future traveller over the same ground will be 



