viii INTRODUCTION. 



In the matter of food for Parrots, the public has yet very much to learn: 

 the traditional bread and milk, like the customary hard-boiled egg for 

 Canaries, is a mistake: Parrots are graminivorous, that is to say, vegetable 

 feeders; a few of them, it is true, live almost exclusively on honey, and a 

 less number are partially insectivorous in their habits, but no known bird 

 of this genus touches flesh in its wild state, the rumoured partiality of the 

 Nestor notabilis for live lambs notwithstanding. Therefore to feed a bird of 

 this description on animal food, such as milk, butter, bits from the table, 

 bones and so on, is to force it to partake of an unnatural diet, which is 

 certain, sooner or later, to produce disease, and ultimately to destroy the 

 bird. To argue that because a Parrot appears to enjoy such an abnormal 

 course of feeding, it is good for it, is about as sensible as to say that 

 children love sweetmeats, and may, without endangering their health, be 

 fed largely, if not exclusively, upon them, for Parrots, like children, are 

 not always, indeed never, able to discriminate between those things that 

 are suitable for them, and those that are injurious. 



The larger Parrots require large seeds, such as maize, oats, dari, buckwheat, 

 and dry biscuits (without milk or butter), nuts of various sorts, Brazilian, 

 cob, and especially monkey nuts; and the smaller varieties, canary seed, 

 millet, hemp, and a few oats occasionally. As all these birds in their wild 

 state subsist more or less on unripe, or at least soft seeds, and fruit of 

 different kinds, apples, pears, grapes, and oranges may be included, with 

 discretion, in their bill of fare; and a portion of the different kinds of seeds 

 that are offered to them should always be supplied either boiled or soaked 

 in water until soft. 



Again, these birds should always have access to water: it is true that 

 many of them will exist for a long time, even on a diet of dry seed, without 

 drinking, but Parrots in their wild state always drink, if even some of them 

 confine their potations to sucking the drops of dew off the leaves and 

 grass; and in captivity water is even more necessary to maintain them in 

 health, for the staple of their food is dry, and they have not the chance 

 of sipping the pearly drops of dew. Deprivation of water produces indi- 

 gestion, causes heat and irritation of the skin, and often leads to the poor 

 bird stripping itself bare of feathers. 



Although a Parrot has a strong beak, it has no teeth, and is unable to 

 masticate its food, swallowing the smaller seeds whole, that is after having 

 stripped them of their husks, and the larger in little fragments, which re- 

 quire softening in the crop, and triturating in the muscular stomach or 



