52 
GREY PARROT. 
dark, and having to pass the night in the open air, it was time to take 
steps to make our sojourn in the forest as comfortable as possible. A 
fire being the first necessity, we left our shelter in order to gather some 
of the dead palm-leaves that lay about ; as we emerged from our coverts 
the Parrots perceived us, and in a moment the whole place was ringing 
with their deafening screams. The fire was soon made, and burning up 
quickly, it cast a cheerful light and warmth around the spot, rendering 
our bivouac more agreeable ; and the Parrots, attracted by the unusual 
sight, kept flying over and around the place thus illuminated. An hour 
afterwards, quiet been restored, we proceeded to get our supper, 
consisting of roasted bananas ; this being finished, we dried some moss 
to serve for a bed and retired; but the night was so cold, and the 
mosquitos kept stinging my face so pertinaciously, that it was impossible 
to sleep; so I got up and roasted some more bananas, smoked a pipe, 
and then felt quite ready to go in pursuit of the birds. My companion 
was sleeping soundly, apparently undisturbed by those causes that 
deprived me of my sleep. As it wanted some three hours of daylight 
I occupied myself in preparing limed sticks and making snares. On 
the appearance of the first streak of dawn we proceeded to the tree 
where a nest was suspected to be; my black man, being a capital 
climber, went up to the hole, and looking iu found two young Parrots, 
which he carefully tied up in a pocket-handkerchief and lowered down 
to me: the little things seemed to be about a fortnight old, and 
readily took some banana X offered them. The old birds were absent, 
probably seekiug food; at least we did not see them. The two young 
ones we fastened with string to the trunk of the tree, and placed 
some limed sticks round about them. In this way we caught one of 
the parent birds, the securing of which was a matter of some difficulty, 
owing to the resistance it made. We put the freshly caught old bird 
in a linen bag, and fastened it beside the young ones. In a few 
minutes our captive began to turn round and round, at the same time 
screaming vociferously: this quickly attracted the attention of the 
Parrots in the neighbourhood, which came near, gazing with astonish- 
ment at the bag which contained their mysteriously hidden comrade. 
One more bold than the rest flew down and settled on a lime stick, 
but its struggles were so violent that it succeeded in getting away. 
I then took my gun and shot two individuals, the others immediately 
taking flight. 
On the same morning we discovered two more nests : one of them 
contained three very young birds; the other had only one egg. My 
man had previously laid some snares, but no birds had been caught. 
We then searched about among the trees in this part of the Pico de 
