432 
PARROT. 
ference of the male, or by what particular means, 
was not ascertained : however, in the beginning of 
June, the parrot laid two more eggs ; but this time 
she deposited them in an earthen vase, half filled 
with cinders, which was on the ground, just within 
a door that concealed the bird while sitting. She 
sat forty days, and on the fifteenth of July an egg 
was hatched, but the young one died the next day. 
M. Passeri, wishing to prove the birth of a parrot at 
Rome, carried it to the hospital of San Spirito; but 
it was found too far advanced in putrefaction, and 
was therefore thrown away : it was seen, however, 
by several surgeons’ pupils who were present. The 
fourth, or, to speak more correctly, the fifth time 
the female produced, she laid three eggs in the 
same vessel, or scaldino, filled with ashes, and 
standing in the door-way as the year before. The 
incubation continued forty days, and on the twenty- 
fourth of June a young bird came forth. Some 
days afterwards the other eggs were thrown away, as 
being unproductive. This infant parrot remained 
almost naked the first fifteen days ; but afterwards 
the small gray quills of the wings began to show 
themselves, and by the twentieth of August (that 
is to say, at the end of about two months,) the bird 
was completely clothed. It was the fourteenth of 
July before the parrot began to open its eyes ; and 
when it was well furnished with plumage, the mo- 
ther, who had constantly slept in the nest, forsook 
it, and returned to the male as usual. On the 
twenty-fifth of August the young parrot slept out of 
