JAVAN PABBAEEET. 
91 
for a perrucherie is a pandemonium for noise; witness tte Parrot-house 
at the “Zoo”, in which, with the strongest possible inclination to remain 
and study the inmates, we have always found it impossible to stay for 
more than a few minutes at a time. 
During the breeding-season, however, comparative silence reigns in 
an aviary of Parrots; the various couples therein domiciled being too 
intent upon their domestic arrangements to have much time for neigh- 
bourly conversation, hence the unwonted quiet that prevails while eggs 
are being hatched, or young ones fed, that is as long as the latter 
remain warmly ensconced under the paternal and maternal wing, for 
when they have outgrown their natal nest-box, they make confusion 
worse confounded by their squeaking and incessant demands for food. 
Such a Parrot aviary as we have in our mind would be a source 
of never-ending interest, and amusement, too, to its fortunate possessor, 
for these birds have a vast amount of individuality, and take as much 
studying to know them thoroughly as men. The grave and the gay, 
the indolent and the active, the gentle and the quarrelsome, the greedy 
and the abstemious, are each and all represented in a collection of 
Parrots and Parrakeets; while occasionally one personage out of perhaps 
half a hundred keeps the whole place in an uproar, and makes himself 
so universally disliked, that to ensure peace his removal becomes a 
matter of necessity. 
After a while, however, the community settles down, each paii’, each 
individual, soon finds his and their level, the rulers are tacitly recog- 
nised, allowed the first place at the seed pan and the water trough, 
the choice of nest-box, and the most comfortable position on the sleeping 
perch, and then all goes as merrily as a marriage ball, which actually, 
if the weather only be propitious, very soon takes place, for one of the 
funniest features of Parrot married life, is the grotesque — grotesque 
that is in human eyes — dance of the male bird before the lady of his 
love. 
To see him, and the habit is common to nearly the entire race, with 
ruffled plumes and outspread wings and tail, solemnly bobbing up and 
down before his spouse on the perch, or may be on the top of the 
nest-box, pausing every now and then in the performance to feed her 
with half-digested seeds, disgorged for her benefit from his crop, is a 
sight not readily forgotten, the croaking that accompanies the dance 
is the only disagreeable feature in the entertainment; and when we say 
disagreeable”, we also mean from the human point of view, for doubt- 
less Herr Parrot's “song” is quite as pleasing to his Men aimee as 
the serenade of Romeo was to his Juliet. 
Needless to plant trees or shrubs in an aviary of Parrots, but hollow 
