OR, PLAIN 



Though very many of them 

 fife noisy birds, and they are 

 exceedingly numerous, there is 

 less known of parrots in a state 

 of nature, than of almost any 

 other family of birds. The cha- 

 racter of the tropical forests 

 causes this, from the difficulty 

 with which masses of tall and 

 thickly matted vegetation can be 

 entered. In their natural state, 

 many of them are social birds, 

 often congregating upon the 

 trees in large flocks ; and they 

 nestle in the holes of trees. 



The facility with which par- 

 rots can be made to speak, sing, 

 or whistle, renders them very 

 amusing. Hence, they are fa- 

 vourites in all countries. 



The upper mandible of the 

 parrot tribe is moveable. This 

 remarkable exception to a very 

 general rule, requires an expla- 

 nation ; and it is to be found in 

 this — that as parrots, in accord- 

 ance with their habits 5 so constant- 

 ly bite and gnaw wood and other 

 hard substances, the moveability 

 of both mandibles prevents the 

 concussion caused thereby from 

 being transmitted to the -brain. 

 Thus we find that every pro- 

 vision in nature is designed for 

 some wise purpose. 



Macaws, parakeets, love-birds, 

 cockatoos, aratoos, lorys, lorikeets, 

 &c, are included in the parrot 

 tribes. These are not so capable 

 of talking as the true parrots. 

 Cockatoos, 20, are very handsome 

 birds ; elegant in the form of 

 their bodies, and with beautiful 

 crests, which they can erect or 

 depress at pleasure. They are 

 not, however, able to articulate 



teaching. 127 



words very perfectly ; though 

 they pronounce very, distinctly 



20 



the word " cock-a-too," from 

 which peculiarity they take their 

 name. 



The parrots, properly so called, 

 are the most interesting of the 

 family ; less attractive in plum- 

 age, but more apt in pronoun- 

 cing words. 



In the Gentleman's Magazine 

 for October, 1802, appeared the 

 following notice of a celebrated 

 parrot : — 



Saturday, October 9. — Died, at the house of 

 Colonel O'Kelly, in Half-moon Street, Piccadilly, 

 his wonderful parrot, who had bc**i in his 

 family thirty years, having been pu> chased at 

 Bristol out of a West India ship. It sang, with 

 the greatest clearness and precision, the 104th 

 Psalm, " The Banks of the Dee," " God save the 

 King ! " and other favourite songs ; and, if it 

 blundered in any one, instantly began again, till 

 it had the tune complete. One hundred guineas 

 had been refused for it in London. After its 

 death the stomach was opened, from an appre- 

 hension that something had stuck in it, but no 

 obstruction was discovered, and probably it died 

 the natural death of old age. Mr. Jesse, in his 

 Gleanings'- of Natural History mentions a parrot 

 which belonged to a resident at Hampton Court, 

 of which a lady furnished him with the follow- 

 ing account : — " As you wished me to write 

 down whatever I could collect about my sister's 

 wonderful parrot, I proceed to do so, only pre- 

 mising that I will tell you nothing but what I 

 can vouch for having heard myself. Her laugh 

 is quite extraordinary, and it is impossible not to 

 help joining in it oneself, more especially when, 

 in the midst of it, she cries out, " Don't make 



