128 ASH-COLOURED OR GREY PARROT. 
priate enunciation, used by carters in backing, that 
is, making the horse, by a retrograde motion, place 
the cart or waggon in the most convenient station 
for loading or unloading. This term the bird one 
day made use of, when a cart and horse had impru- 
dently been left unattended for a short time, and the 
horse, obeying the mandate of the bird, continued 
to keep moving backwards, till both were precipi- 
tated over the quay, and the unfortunate animal was 
drowned. 
The Grey Parrot is a native of western Africa, 
from whence it appears to have been imported to 
a very early period ; but common and well known 
as it is in a state of captivity, its peculiar habits 
and economy in a state of nature are still but little 
and imperfectly known. Like most of its kind, it is 
said to breed in the hollows of decayed trees ; and 
the instinctive propensity for such situations does 
not appear to desert it even in a state of captivity ; 
for Buffon mentions a pair in France, that, for five 
or six years successively, produced and brought up 
their young, and that the place they selected for this 
purpose was a cask partly filled with saw-dust. Its 
eggs are stated to be generally four in number, their 
colour white, and in size equal to those of a pigeon. 
In its native state, the food of the Parrot consists of 
the kernels of various fruits, and the seeds of other 
vegetables ; but when domesticated, or kept caged, 
its principal diet is generally bread and milk, varied 
with nuts, almonds, &c., and even pieces of dressed 
