instance of the growth of a new and complex instinct actually under the eyes 

 of human observers. 



A few words as to the general coloring of the parrot group. Tropical for- 

 estine birds have usually a ground tone of green because that color enables them 

 best to escape notice among the monotonous verdure of equatorial woodland 

 scenery. In the north, it is true, green is a very conspicuous color; but that is 

 only because for half the year our trees are bare, and even during the other half 

 they lack that "breadth of tropic shade" which characterizes the forests of all 

 hot countries. Therefore, in temperate climates, the common ground-tone of 

 birds is brown, to harmonize with the bare boughs and leafless twigs, the dead 

 grass or stubble. But in the ever-green tropics, green is the proper hue for 

 concealment or defense. Therefore, the parrots, the most purely tropical family 

 of birds on earth, are chiefly greenish ; and among the smaller and more defence- 

 less sorts, like the little love-birds, where the need for protection is greatest, the 

 green of the plumage is almost unbroken. Green, in truth, must be regarded as 

 the basal parrot tint, from which all other colors are special decorative variations. 



But fruit-eating and flower-feeding creatures — such as butterflies and hum- 

 ming birds — seeking their food among the brilliant flowers and bright berries, 

 almost invariably acquire a taste for varied coloring, and by the aid of the factor 

 in evolution, known as sexual selection, this taste stereotypes itself at last upon 

 their wings and plumage. They choose their mates for their attractive coloring. 

 As a consequence, all the larger and more gregarious parrots, in which the need 

 for concealment is less, tend to diversify the fundamental green of their coats 

 with red, yellow or blue, which in some cases takes possession of the entire body. 

 The largest kinds of all, like the great blue and yellow or crimson macaws, are 

 as gorgeous as birds well could be; they are also the species least afraid of 

 enemies. In Brazil, it is said, they may often be seen moving about in pairs in 

 the evening with as little attempt at concealment as storks in Germany. 



Even the New Zealand owl-parrot still retains many traces of his original 

 greenness, mixed with the brown and dingy yellow of his nocturnal and bur- 

 rowing nature. 



I now turn to the parrot's power of mimicry in human language. This 

 power is only an incidental result of the general intelligence of parrots, com- 

 bined with the other peculiarities of their social Hfe and forestine character. 

 Dominant woodland animals, like monkeys and parrots, at least if vegetarian in 

 their habits, are almost always gregarious, noisy, mischievous and imitative. And 

 the imitation results directly from a somewhat high order of intelligence. The 

 power of intellect, in all except the very highest phases, is merely the ability to 

 accurately imitate another. 



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