662 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



Lord's Prayer in Dutch, throwing himself at the same time on his back, and folding 

 the toes of both his feet. The gray parrot not only imitates the voice of man, but has 

 also a strong desire to do so, which he manifests by his attention in listening, and by 

 the continuous efforts he makes to repeat the phrases he has heard. He seems to im- 

 pose upon himself a daily task, which even occupies him during sleep, as he speaks in 

 his dreams. His memory is astonishing, so that a cardinal once gave a hundred gold 

 crowns for one of these birds that correctly repeated a long prayer ; and M. de la 

 Borde told Buffon he had seen one that was fully able to perform the duties of a ship's 

 chaplain. 



All parrots are more or less susceptible of education, and, particularly when caught 

 young, grow very much attached to the master that feeds them. Those that are sent 

 to Europe are generally taken from the nest, and thus never have experienced the 

 sweets of freedom; but they are also frequently caught full grown. The South 

 American Indians know how to strike them with small arrows, whose points are blunted 

 with cotton, so as to stun without killing them ; or else, under the trees on which they 

 perch, they light a fire of strong-smelling weeds, whose vapors cause them to drop to 

 the ground. These captives are frequently extremely stubborn; but blowing the 

 fumes of tobacco into their face until they fall asleep is an infallible remedy to cure 

 them of their obstinacy, this operation being so little to their taste that it need hardly 

 ever be repeated twice. Parrots are known to attain a very great age. One that was 

 brought to Florence in 1633, and belonged to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, died in 

 1743, having thus lived more than a century in exile. Although preeminently 

 tropical, like the colibris, several parrots range far within the temperate zone, as they 

 are found in the Southern hemisphere at the Straits of Magellan and on the Macquarie 

 Islands, and in the Northern, in Ohio and Kentucky, where the Carolina parrot is 

 often seen in great numbers during the summer. 



The Cockatoos are distinguished from the other parrots by a crest or tuft of elegant 

 feathers on the head, which they can raise and depress at pleasure. They inhabit the 

 East Indies and Australia, and have generally a white or roseate plumage. Their 

 chief resorts are dense and humid forests, and they frequently cause great devasta- 

 tions in the rice plantations, often pouncing to the number of six or eight hundred 

 upon a single field, and destroying even more than they devour, as they seem to be 

 possessed of the mania to break and tear everything their beak can lay hold of. They 

 walk less awkwardly than most other parrots. The great white cockatoo ( Gacatua 

 cristata), who is able to erect his beautiful yellow crest to the hight of five inches, 

 as a cock does his comb, is the species most frequently seen in Europe. This bird is 

 half-domesticated in several parts of India, as it builds its nest under the roofs of 

 houses, and this tameness results from its intelligence, which seems superior to that 

 of other parrots. It listens attentively, but vainly strives to repeat what is said. As 

 Australia, the land of anomalies in natural history, possesses a black swan, it also 

 gives birth to a splendid black cockatoo ( Gacatua Banksii), the finest and the rarest 

 of the whole genus. 



The magnificent Macaws, or Aras, of South America are distinguished by having 

 their cheeks destitute of feathers, and their tail feathers long. Their size and splendid 

 plumage render them fit ornaments of princely gardens, but their loud and piercing 

 screams proTe a great annoyance to the iamatesj of humbler dwellings. " Supe- 



