PARROTS 
The yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot, or green parrot, is an excellent 
talker. Capable of imitating almost any sounds produced by man or beast, 
green parrots have been taught to speak and especially to swear in prac¬ 
tically every living language. The traditional tongue of the parrot has, 
however, been Spanish ever since the days of the Spanish Main. 
These birds are long-lived and hardy, many individuals outliving their 
owners. They show no ill effects from long sea journeys and consequently 
they are common pets throughout the world, enlivening many a lonely 
household with their irrepressible profanity, their green, blue and yellow 
plumage and their wise, winking eyes. Sometimes their remarks are so 
biting and pertinent that many people believe them to understand what 
they are saying. At a talking contest for parrots held in England, one entry 
looked at all the others assembled and croaked: “By jove, what a lot of 
parrots!” 
Green parrots lay eggs in captivity but never bring forth young. The 
wild birds do not construct a nest, but lay their two white eggs in the hole 
of a tree amid their native jungles. Male and female care for the eggs 
together. 
In chattering groups these parrots climb about the trees like acrobats, 
searching for nuts and palm fruit. In the wild state they probably do not 
drink water. Some scientists maintain that their vegetable food provides them 
with sufficient moisture, but other observers, of a more romantic turn of 
mind, assert that water-drinking is incompatible with their seafaring tradi¬ 
tion. Still others insist that they do drink water. Be that as it may, parrots 
have in some respects the most highly-perfected brains of the bird world. 
Their chief enemy is man, who catches them in nets and nooses and sells 
them as pets. 
Parrots have been well known to the western world ever since Alexan¬ 
der the Great’s conquests in India. The Romans kept them as pets and, 
like many Indian tribes of today, regarded them as a great table delicacy. 
One Roman aristocrat went so far as to feed them to his lions. 
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