DOUBLE- FE ONTEB A MAZON. 105 



matised in our woods were it not for the unhappy propensity, common, 

 alas! to every class of society in these civilized (?) islands, to shoot 

 and destroy a strange bird the moment it ventures to put in an appear- 

 ance; so that experiments, of the highest interest to naturalists, have 

 been utterly frustrated, though not undertaken without considerable 

 expense, simply on account of this wanton and barbarous habit of 

 "potting" anything strange and unusual in the shape of a feathered 

 fowl : indeed so strong is this inherited propensity in some people that 

 more than one stranger has been hooted, and even stoned in a remote 

 village, for no other reason in the world than because he was a 

 stranger: and to the same cause is doubtless referrible the irresistible 

 propensity common to the entire fair sex, of picking to pieces, meta- 

 phorically, a sister whom they chance to see for the first time: but 

 after all, our boasted nineteenth century civilization and refinement is 

 a very thin veneer, strain it but a little, and it forthwith cracks, and 

 shows, unpleasantly enough, the disagreeable savagery that lies hidden 

 close beneath. Well, probably our coat of paint, or gilding, or what- 

 ever we like to call it, will grow thicker in due time, and become a 

 real thing, and then we shall cease to stone and stare at a stranger, 

 whether male or female, and to kill strange birds. 



To return to our Double-fronted friend, of which a very good example, 

 from which our illustration is taken, exists in the Zoological Gardens 

 in the Regent's Park, where it has lived, without water, for several 

 years. Now, although we are perfectly well aware, as a writer in that 

 grandmotherly Review, The Saturday, recently pointed out, that Parrots 

 can exist without drinking, we maintain that it is unnatural for them 

 to do so; and granted that in their wild state some of them, Psittacus 

 erithacus for instance, seldom resort to the water-courses, it should be 

 remembered that in the countries where these birds are found the dew 

 falls very heavily, and the leaves during the night are saturated with 

 moisture, which, on more than one occasion, we have seen birds, 

 Parrots included, eagerly sucking before they left their roosting-places 

 to seek their food in their accustomed haunts : but in captivity, where, 

 as often as not, their food consists of dry seed, they have no oppor- 

 tunity of drinking dew, and require to be supplied with water, if they 

 are to be kept in health. It is no answer to say that they can live 

 without drinking; the question is, does it make the poor things suffer? 

 and there can, we- think, be no doubt that it does. In no other part 

 of the world with which we are acquainted does the absurd custom 

 prevail, and when we have mentioned it to foreigners, our statement 

 has been received with an astonishment bordering on incredulity. 



On the authority of an observer (Beobachter) in Venezuela, Dr. Russ, 



