I shall not here enter particularly into the habits, etc, of parrots in a state of nature, as I have already done so fully in my before-mentioned larger work. But this knowledge is necessary for the treatment of these birds in the cage. How could we know in what way we should feed and tend them, and, above all, successfully breed them and satisfy their wants, if we knew nothing of their natural life and habits ? The parrot in the aviary appears before us as in freedom, or, at any rate, in a half-wild condition; the speaker, on the contrary, appears to us as a completely captive bird. In such a state it is deprived of everything which freedom bestowed on it. It can neither have its normal life nor sufficient motion. Air, light, temperature, and especially food, are all changed, and the conditions of its dwelling are only too strange. Here we must not act as in breeding time, not imitate nature as faithfully as possible, and supply what fails in as natural a manner as practicable; but on the contrary, we must create new circumstances, and satisfy needs in a totally different manner. It must, however, be thoroughly understood that it is not a matter of indifference in what way caged parrots be fed; rather have many years of experience fixed certain rules according to which nourishment must be given. Every transgression of the principles which I shall further lay down on this head, in the chapter about "Food," will be severely visited by the sickness, or even loss, of more or less valuable birds. First, we must notice that all parrots feed chiefly upon plants, upon fruits, seeds, blossoms, shoots, or other soft and delicate parts of vegetable growths. Many - for instance, the smaller species - need animal food for their own support and the rearing of their young, and thus probably devour insects when in freedom.

All parrots are very destructive, for they gnaw and mangle much more than they need for food. They may, therefore, cause extraordinary damage to useful plants. They are on this account exposed to frequent pursuit wherever they appear in large flights, or at all numerously. Moreover, they are killed for use; as, for example, for the plumage as an ornament, or for all kinds of feather work; also to prepare the whole skin for collections. And, finally, many parrots are eaten as game.

The fancy for speaking parrots is known to be very ancient. In all parts of the world, when Europeans first entered into communication with the natives, they found the latter had tame parrots - in India, in the islands of the Malay Archipelago, in America, and in Australia. When the discoverers of America landed in the New World, the Indians came to meet them with large tame macaws. In the villages in Guiana one never sees children playing about without parrots and monkeys with them; and in Africa one finds round the huts of the negroes many Grey Parrots, which have been taken while young from the nests, reared by hand, and which now climb about on the straw roofs and trees with clipped wings. A popular superstition there says that there is so much heat in the nest of a Jaco that whoever thrusts his hand into it will be burnt, and that the white spots which many negroes have upon their hands have been caused by such indiscreet attempts. These marks, however, are the result of skin disease, and the whole fable has been invented merely for the purpose of frightening away others from plundering the parrots' nests - invented, that is to say, by those who themselves carry on this business. In South America, in the present day, the immense trees in which the large and splendid macaws build their nests are regarded as family property, which descends from father to son. The feathers of these birds formerly served for the decoration of their chieftains, and in the present age they adorn the hats of our ladies. Therefore, the feathers of the macaw, as well as the birds themselves, form an important article of commerce.

Many thousands of live parrots are imported annually, and all find ready purchasers. In this bird trade, which has increased so enormously, especially during the last century, there is one very unpleasant side - the constantly prevailing diseases and death of the imported parrots, notably of the Grey Parrots, and also of many kinds of the smaller feathered tribes. It must on no account be thought that this melancholy fact arises from any delicacy of the birds; on the contrary, in spite of all the terrible severities and sufferings which they must pass through, the greater number reach here alive, and of those which have become sickly the majority recover, live, and become perfectly healthy. In this we surely find a proof of the astonishingly strong hold on life with which most of these delicate-looking creatures are endowed.

I will detail more circumstantially this much-to-be-regretted state of affairs. Mr. F. Connor writes from Brazil, in my periodical, "The Feathered World": "The natives, Indians and negroes of mixed race, bring the parrots in a miserable condition to the seaports, feed them with fruit and rice, and sell them to the traders at the average price of 2 milrei's (4s.) a head. Parrots are most frequently obtained inland by barter for about half this price, and then taken in one of the numerous steamboats which ply upon the rivers Para and Amazon to the seaport towns. The purchasers keep them in large cases, in which some perches have been fixed, and which have laths nailed across the front, so that the birds have but little air and less light. Imagine such a dirty place as this, with no kind of provision for cleanliness, into which the food, consisting of bananas, oranges, and potatoes, is thrown, and in a climate where everything so soon decays in the terrible heat! There the unfortunate birds become covered with dirt and vermin; it is no wonder that their health is undermined and that incurable diseases attack them. Here they must remain until they are sold and transported to Europe in a steamer or sailing vessel. The treatment of the Grey Parrots in Africa is similar. The negroes bring them to market in long, reed-shaped baskets, which they carry upon their shoulders; one after the other is seized from behind and dragged out so that it cannot bite. The treatment on the part of the purchasers is, according to unanimous information, everywhere the same. In this, as in every part of the world, living birds are merely regarded as an article of commerce, and each one endeavours, with the least possible trouble, to get the highest possible gain."