DOUBLE-FRONTED AMAZON. 
105 
matised in our woods were it not for tlio unhappy propensity, common, 
alas! to every class of society in these civilized (?) islands, to shoot 
and destroy a strange bird the moment it ventures to put in an appear- 
ance; so that experiments, of the highest interest to naturalists, have 
been utterly frustrated, though not undertaken without considerable 
expense, simply od account of this wanton and barbarous habit of 
“potting” anything strange and unusual in the shape of a feathered 
fowl : indeed so strong is this inherited propensity in some people that 
more than one stranger has been hooted, and even stoned in a remote 
village, for no other reason in the world than because he was a 
stranger: and to the same cause is doubtless referable the irresistible 
propensity common to the entire fair sex, of picking to pieces, meta- 
phorically, a sister whom they chance to see for the first time: but 
after all, our boasted nineteenth century civilization and refinement is 
a very thin veneer, strain it but a little, and it forthwith cracks, and 
shows, unpleasantly enough, the disagreeable savagery that lies hidden 
close beneath. Well, probably our coat of paint, or gilding, or what- 
ever we like to call it, will grow thicker in due time, and become a 
real thing, and then we shall cease to stone and stare at a stranger, 
whether male or female, and to kill strange birds. 
To return to our Double-fronted friend, of which a very good example, 
from which our illustration is taken, exists in the Zoological Gardens 
in the Regent's Park, where it has lived, without water, for several 
years. Now, although we are perfectly well aware, as a writer in that 
grandmotherly Review, The Saturday, recently pointed out, that Parrots 
can exist without drinking, we maintain that it is unnatural for them 
to do so; and granted that in their wild state some of them, Psittacus 
erithacus for instance, seldom resort to the water-courses, it should be 
remembered that in the countries where these birds are found the dew 
falls very heavily, and the leaves during the night are saturated with 
moisture, which, on more than one occasion, we have seen birds 
Parrots included, eagerly sucking before they left their roosting-places 
to seek their food in their accustomed haunts: but in captivity, where, 
as often as not, their food consists of dry seed, they have no oppor- 
tunity of drinking dew, and require to be supplied with water, if they 
are to be kept in health. It is no answer to say that they can live 
without drinking; the question is, does it make the poor things suffer? 
and there can, we think, be no doubt that it does. In no other part 
of the world with which we are acquainted does the absurd custom 
prevail, and when we have mentioned it to foreigners, our statement 
has been received with an astonishment bordering on incredulity. 
On the authority of an observer (Beobachter) in Venezuela, Dr. Russ, 
