^INTRODUCTION. 
IHE height of our ambition in the bird-keeping line for many years was 
to have a Parrot of our own: we were not at all particular as to the 
species, or as to the colour of the bird, whether grey, green, or white, 
whether long or short-tailed, we did not greatly care, so that the creature 
could be called a Parrot, and was able to talk. 
A friend of ours possessed a fine Green Parrot that had taken, why we 
know not, an inveterate dislike to us, and invariably accosted us when we 
entered the room where it was caged with the uncomplimentary exclamation: 
“Get out, you dirty brute!” but in spite of this unmerited reproach, for at 
that time we were especially solicitous about our appearance, we would have 
given anything to own the bird, than which we have seldom, if ever, heard 
one that pronounced quite a number of sentences so distinctly. 
Then another acquaintance had a very clever Grey Parrot, that almost 
spoke as plainly as our green detractor, if with a less extended vocabulary, 
and another had a white Cockatoo of Australian extraction, which, if it had 
not a great deal to say for itself, was an accomplished acrobat, and withal 
so handsome, as it erected its bright sulphur crest, that one could not 
but overlook its linguistic deficiencies in favour of its charming personal 
appearance. 
Green Ring-necked Parrakeets, Australian Broadtails and Cockatiels, and 
the marvellously beautiful Rosella and Pennant, the tiny Love-birds, and the 
Dove-coloured Parrot with its breast of rose — how we envied their owners, 
or at least longed to have one like them of our own. 
Yet, had our wish been gratified then, it is probable we should not have 
been able to retain the object of our desires very long, for we were abso- 
lutely ignorant of the treatment necessary for preserving one of these birds 
in health. 
