CATALOGUE. 
618 
cocoa-nut trees which overhang the native bazaar, that their noise 
quite drowned the Babel of native tongues engaged in bargaining for 
the evening provisions. 
Hearing of the swarms which resorted to the spot, I posted myself 
on a bridge some half a mile away, and attempted to count the flocks 
that came from one direction, eastward, over the jungle. About five 
o'clock in the afternoon, straggling bodies began to wing their way 
homeward, but many of them came back again to pick up the scat- 
tered grains left on the fields near the village : about half-past five, 
however, the tide fairly set in, and I soon found I had no flocks to 
count, — it was one living, screaming stream. Some, high in air, 
winged their way till over their homes, when, with a scream, they 
suddenly dived downwards, with many evolutions, until on a level 
with the trees ; others flew along the ground, rapid and noiselessly ; 
now darting under the pendent boughs of some mango, or other 
solitary tree ; now skimming over the bridge close to my face with 
the rapidity of thought, their brilliant green plumage shining in the 
setting sunlight with a lovely lustre. I waited at this spot till the 
evening closed in, and then took my gun and went to the cocoa-nut 
tope which covered the bazaar. I could hear, though, from the dark- 
ness, I could not distinguish, the birds fighting for their perches ; 
and, on firing a shot, they rose with a noise like the rushing of a 
mighty wind, but soon settled again ; and such a din commenced as I 
shall never forget. The shrill screams of the birds, the fluttering of 
wings innumerable, and the rustling of the glazed leaves of the 
cocoa-nut trees, mingled with the gabbling of the natives below, 
quite stunned me; and I was glad to escape to the path by the 
river's side which led to the Government rest-house, where I was 
stopping. 
It breeds in hollow trees, making little or no nest, and laying 
three, or sometimes four, pure white eggs, weighing 11 3. 16 grs. 
Axis 14 lines, diameter 11 lines. It feeds on grain of all kinds, 
fruits, chillies, plantains, &c. It is easily domesticated, becomes 
very attached and familiar, and is usually seen in most native and 
European houses." — (E. L. Layard.) 
Bemarh. — " This is the only Indian Parrot, so far as we are 
aware," says Mr. Blyth, " that aflects the vicinity of human habi- 
tations ; flocks of them often settling upon buildings, especially if 
situate in gardens with trees about them, and one or more pairs 
occasionally breeding in suitable cavities about buildings. It is the 
only species observed wild in the densely-populous neighbourhood 
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