Tame animals among the red men of America. 43 
mals, which is often thus disposed of before the Indian 
canoes touch the land. The new Portuguese owners 
then again dispose of the stock to the captains and mates 
of the many vessels which lie in the harbour loading pro- 
duce for Europe or the States. Of course summer is a 
more favourable time for this trade than winter ; so that, 
for instance, while the Portuguese will give perhaps as 
much as four shillings a piece for ordinary green parrots 
in summer, they will not give more than a quarter of that 
sum in the winter. Carried to England the same birds 
fetch from ten to twenty shillings in the shops of the 
retail dealers. If the birds when shut up in cages in 
their English homes could speak they could tell odd 
stories of their early life spent, half free, among red- 
skinned Indians. As a child sitting before the family 
parrot, I used often to wonder what sort of places it came 
from, and what were the surroundings of its early life. 
Afterwards I saw these things for myself, 
F 1 
