214 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time. 
Fletcher, in one of his poetical miscellanies, classes the* 
parrot with the “ fatal belman of the night ” :— 
“ Cousin, day-birds are silenc’t, and those fowl 
Yet only sing which hate war me Phoebus’ light: 
Th’ unlucky parrot, and death-boding owl.” 
Mr. Grosart in a note suggests that parrot may here be 
the local name for some English bird. 
Parrots were found in almost all the hot regions of 
the globe, and were brought over in considerable numbers 
by sailors; they are often mentioned by travellers in 
their descriptions of foreign parts. Sir John Mandeville 
indulges in his usual exaggeration, and tells of some 
parrots in the land of Prester John, which rival the Irish¬ 
man’s echo, and speaks of “ their propre nature, and 
salven men that go throughe the desertes, and speken to* 
them appropriately as if they were human ” ( Travels , ed. 
Halliwell, p. 274). These talking parrots, he goes on 
to say, have a large tongue, and have five toes on each 
foot, but those that only scream have but three toes. 
Dr. Percival Wright, in his Animal Life (p. 289), 
makes mention of a parrot supposed to be of the grey 
species, the property of a cardinal in Borne, in the year 
1500. This bird was bought for the high price of a 
hundred pieces of gold, on account of its ability to 
repeat, clearly and without hesitation, the Apostle’s 
Creed. 
Navarette, a missionary to China, reports that “ at 
Marassa there are a great number of a sort of bird they 
call cacatua. They are all white, their beak like a 
parrot. They are easily made tame, and talk ” (Ghur- 
chilVs Voyages , vol. i.). From this word cacatua is derived 
the English name Cockatoo. 
Macaws are mentioned by one of Purchas’s pilgrims* 
a Portuguese, who had lived for some time in Brazil:— 
“ The Arara parots are those that by another name are called 
