PARROTS. 



167 



Why parrots should have established themselves on 

 Blanquilla at all, has always remained a mystery for us ; 

 for the only attractions which we could discover, though 

 doubtless there are many others, were the small yellow 

 fruit-Hke seeds of some guaiacum trees and the 

 fruits of the cactus. Numbers of these trees 

 grew in a woodland belt, situated along the whole 

 length of the eastern side of the island ; and here 

 it was that in January we met with any number 

 of parrots ; numbers which exceeded, out of all 

 proportion, anything which we have ever seen in any 

 of the West Indian or Venezuelan islands. The only 

 locality, indeed (confining our remarks to islands alone,) 

 in which we have seen anything approaching such 

 quantities, was in the western end of Margarita Island. 

 Curious as this seems, however, the converse state of 

 things on the Island of Grenada easily beats it. On this 

 island alone of all the larger islands of the Windward 

 group is no parrot found, and there is no reason to suppose 

 that one ever existed there. It is one of the most luxuriant 

 islands in the West Indies. 



One morning, being anxious to obtain a good series of 

 the Blanquilla parrot, for comparison with neighbouring 

 species, we left the yacht while it was still dark, and made 

 our way up to this long belt of trees. As soon as the sun 

 had risen, the distant cries of the parrots, as they flew 

 from tree to tree, came floating over the dense scrub ; 

 and having once worked our way into the neighbour- 

 hood where they were feeding, it was the work of a 

 very little time to find several large flocks, and to shoot 

 a sufiiciently large number for our purpose. Like other 

 parrots, they were almost invariably seen in pairs, and 

 observed this constancy, even when as many as forty or 

 more were flying together. By reason of this fldelity, 

 shooting parrots is far from being a task one would 

 willingly undertake, except for some very definite object; 

 for once or twice when a bird fell, it was instantly followed 

 in its fall by its companion, which circled round and round 



