360 TlMEHR!. 
of places, provided only that the people among whom it 
originates are sufficiently primitive to be ignorant of 
the real absence of relation between the special cause 
and its effect assumed in any application of the doctrine 
of signatures. 
But, as it is of course obvious that inoculation with 
the blood of a bright-coloured frog, and it is, to say the 
least, probable that inoculation with faroah, cannot 
produce the desired brilliancy in the feathers of the 
bird, the fa 61 that this brilliancy really is attained has to 
be explained. The explanation seems to me to be, that 
the bird can only be subjected to inoculation, or at 
least that the changes in the bird after inoculation can 
only be observed and known, when it is more or less in 
a state of captivity, or rather of tameness, for Indians 
seldom, if ever, long shut up their numerous birds in 
cages ; that in this tame state the bird wanders 
about the Indian's house and feeds itself on scraps of 
meat, fish and other such food unnatural to it ; and 
that this unnatural diet, or some of its constituent parts, 
is that which really effects the change in colour. What 
the special efficient food is is not certain ; I have heard 
it asserted, and I think not without reason, that it is salt. 
It must be here noted that, as far as my experience goes, 
and Mr. Tylor — the only other person known to me 
who has alluded to this special point — seems to make a 
similar statement, the only colour artificially produced 
is yellow, either pure yellow or reddish, —yellow passing 
to orange. Nearly every one of the many, naturally 
green, parrots seen about Indian settlements has unless 
it be quite young, a greater, or less number of abnormal 
yellow feathers, and instances are on record, one has 
