JAVAN PARRAKEET.- 91 



for a jperrucherie is a pandemonium for noise; witness the Parrot-house 

 at the "Zoo", in which, with the strongest possible inclination to remain 

 and study the inmates, we haye always found it impossible to stay for 

 more than a few minutes at a time. 



During the breeding-season, however, comparative silence reigns in 

 an aviary of Parrots; the various couples therein domiciled being too 

 intent upon their domestic arrangements to have much time for neigh- 

 bourly conversation, hence the unwonted quiet that prevails while eggs 

 are being hatched, or young ones fed, that is as long as the latter 

 remain warmly ensconced under the paternal and maternal wing, for 

 when they have outgrown their natal nest-box, they make confusion 

 worse confounded by their squeaking and incessant demands for food. 



Such a Parrot aviary as we have in our mind would be a source 

 of never-ending interest, and amusement, too, to its fortunate possessor, 

 for these birds have a vast amount of individuality, and take as much 

 studying to know them thoroughly as men. The grave and the gay, 

 the indolent and the active, the gentle and the quarrelsome, the greedy 

 and the abstemious, are each and all represented in a collection of 

 Parrots and Parrakeets; while occasionally one personage out of perhaps 

 half a hundred keeps the whole place in an uproar, and makes himself 

 so universally disliked, that to ensure peace his removal becomes a 

 matter of necessity. 



After a while, however, the community settles down, each pair, each 

 individual, soon finds his and their level, the rulers are tacitly recog- 

 nised, allowed the first place at the seed pan and the water trough, 

 the choice of nest-box, and the most comfortable position on the sleeping 

 perch, and then all goes as merrily as a marriage ball, which actually, 

 if the weather only be propitious, very soon takes place, for one of the 

 funniest features of Parrot married life, is the grotesque — grotesque 

 that is in human eyes — dance of the male bird before the lady of his 

 . love. 



To see him, and the habit is common to nearly the entire race, with 

 ruffled plumes and outspread wings and tail, solemnly bobbing up and 

 down before his spouse on the perch, or may be on the top of the 

 nest-box, pausing every now and then in the performance to feed her 

 with half-digested seeds, disgorged for her benefit from his crop, is a 

 sight not readily forgotten, the croaking that accompanies the dance 

 is the only disagreeable feature in the entertainment; and when we say 

 "disagreeable", we also mean from the human point of view, for doubt- 

 less Herr Parrot's "song" is quite as pleasing to his Men aimee as 

 the serenade of Romeo was to his Juliet. 



Needless to plant trees or shrubs in an aviary of Parrots, but hollow 



