CHAPTER XXIV

PARROTS, PIGEONS, PEA-FOWL, PHEASANTS, ETC.

The members of the parrot family are very interesting birds; in the first place because they are generally so gaily colored, in the second place because they are so easily tamed, and in the third place because many of them are such capital talkers. They nearly all spend the greater part of their lives in the trees, and if you look at their feet you will see that the first and fourth toes are turned backward while the second and third are directed forward. This gives the birds a great power of grasp, and helps them in climbing.

At least five hundred different kinds of these birds have been discovered in different parts of the world, but we shall only be able to tell you about a few of them. Let us take first a parrot, then a parrakeet, then a cockatoo, then a macaw, and then a love-bird, as representing the various groups.

THE GRAY PARROT

We take this parrot because it is the one which we see most often in cages. It comes from Central Africa, and, like most parrots, is generally seen in large flocks, which fly about together. During the daytime these birds often travel long distances in search of food, which consists chiefly of fruits and nuts, but in the evening they always return to their regular roosting-places.

This parrot makes no nest at all, but just lays its eggs in a hole in the trunk of a tree. Both birds sit in turns, and if danger threatens they will defend their eggs or their little ones with the greatest courage. And if they seem to be getting the worst of the fight, it is said that the rest of the flock will come to their rescue, and will nearly always succeed in driving the enemy away.

When they are kept as pets gray parrots nearly always learn to talk well, and sometimes make such suitable remarks that it really almost seems as if they must understand what they say. That they live to a very great age appears certain from the fact that they have sometimes been kept in captivity for seventy or eighty years.

PARRAKEETS

These birds are found in the hotter parts of Africa, Asia, and Australia, being very plentiful, for instance, in the forests of India. Perhaps the best known of them is the East Indian ring-necked parrakeet, which is green in color, the male having a red ring round his neck, with a black ring underneath it. The length of the bird is about seventeen inches, of which almost exactly half is taken up by the tail.

These parrakeets are dreadfully mischievous birds, for they visit both fields and gardens, and devour enormous quantities of grain and fruit. You can easily understand how much harm four or five hundred of them can do in a short time, and flocks of this size are often seen, while sometimes they are even larger still. They have regular roosting-places, to which they always return at night; and they lay their three or four white eggs in holes in trees.

COCKATOOS

Cockatoos may easily be recognized by their feathery crests, which they can raise and lower at will. We will take the sulphur-crested cockatoo as our example.

This favorite cage-bird comes from Australia, where it is found in enormous flocks. Fancy seeing a thousand cockatoos flying about together! And fancy what it must be to listen to their screams! Yet a flock of this size is not at all uncommon. The birds are not as plentiful as they used to be, however, for they did so much mischief in the grain-fields that the planters shot them in large numbers; often, indeed, a field would be so full of cockatoos that from a little distance it looked as though it were deeply covered with snow.

As talkers cockatoos are not nearly so clever as parrots, but they soon learn to imitate all kinds of sounds, such as the barking of dogs, the mewing of cats, the cackling of fowls, and the gobbling of turkeys. Unfortunately, however, they are very fond of screaming, and make a terrible outcry if they are annoyed in any way, so that they are apt to be rather a nuisance if they are kept as pets.

MACAWS

The macaws are large and handsome birds, their plumage being nearly always very brightly and even gaudily colored. In the red and blue macaw, for instance, which is one of the best known, the general color is bright vermilion red, with a patch of yellow feathers on the upper part of each wing. Then the lower part of the back, together with the quills of the wings and the outside feathers of the tail, is blue, while the central tail-feathers are scarlet with blue tips. But even this is not all, for underneath the wings and tail are golden red, varied by patches of yellow feathers tipped with green. This magnificent bird is nearly three feet long, two-thirds of that length being occupied by the tail.

Macaws are found in large flocks in the great forests of tropical America, where they may be seen sometimes flying high in air, and sometimes sitting on the topmost branches of the tallest trees. Their cries can be heard from a very long distance away.

Macaws are just as mischievous in the cornfields as parrots and cockatoos are in other parts of the world, and are much more difficult to kill; for some, before settling down to feed, post sentinels in the tops of tall trees near by, and steadily watchful, they give the alarm as soon as they see the slightest sign of danger.

Macaws lay their eggs in holes in tree-trunks, as parrots do, and are said to enlarge the holes to suit their requirements by means of their powerful beaks. They are not very wise birds, however, for when they are sitting they often leave their long tails projecting out of the hole, to be seen by every passer-by!

LOVE-BIRDS

Of all the birds which belong to the parrot family the love-birds are the smallest, being little bigger than finches. Seven different kinds are known, all found in Africa south of the Desert of Sahara.

These pretty little creatures are called love-birds because they seem so very fond of one another. If two or three are kept in a cage together, they always snuggle up as closely as possible, and will sit side by side for hours, perfectly happy in each other's company. And often, if one of a couple dies, the other will pine away in a short time and die too, apparently from sorrow.

In a wild state love-birds are generally seen in small flocks which fly very rapidly, and constantly utter their sharp screaming cry. They do not seem to make any nests for themselves, but make use of those of other birds instead. Whether they turn out the rightful owners, however, or merely take possession of nests which have been deserted, nobody seems to know.

PIGEONS

We shall only be able to tell you about two members of the great pigeon family, the first of which shall be the wood-pigeon, or ring-dove, which is interesting as the wild original that has given us our domestic pigeons, so many varieties of which have been produced by fanciers.

This is a very common bird in almost all parts of the British Isles, and one can scarcely walk through a wood without startling it from its retreat in the thick foliage of some tall tree, or ramble through the fields without seeing at least one flock on its way to its feeding-grounds. Unfortunately, it does a good deal of mischief, for it has a most enormous appetite, and carries off immense quantities of grain from the cornfields. Just to give you some idea of the amount of food that it will eat, we may mention that no less than eight hundred grains of wheat have been taken from the crop of a single wood-pigeon, six hundred peas from that of another, and one hundred and eighty beechnuts from that of a third; while one naturalist tells us that the bird will sometimes pack away enough turnip-tops to fill a pint measure when they are well shaken up!

Our American turtle-dove, or mourning-dove, is much like this but nobody minds the few bits of grain it picks up. On the other hand, the wood-pigeon devours great quantities of the seeds of weeds; so although it is mischievous in one way, it is useful in another.

The nest of the wood-pigeon, which is mostly placed in the upper branches of a tall tree, is very clumsily made. Indeed, it is very little more than a platform of sticks, which are often so loosely put together, that as you look up from below you can see the eggs through the gaps between them! There are never more than two eggs, which are perfectly white.

THE PASSENGER-PIGEON

The passenger-pigeon, or wild pigeon of North America, is remarkable for two reasons.

In the first place, it is (or rather, used to be) found in the most astonishing numbers. Flocks of these birds _many miles in length_ have often been seen, while large tracts of forest were once so thronged with their nests that all the smaller branches and many of the larger ones were broken down. Fancy what that means when a nesting-place is thirty miles long and several miles broad, while as many as a hundred nests may be found in a single tree!

In the second place, the bird is renowned as a traveler. That is why it is called the passenger-pigeon. All over the length and breadth of the country a few years ago these vast flocks would fly, coming no man knows whence, going no man knows whither, roosting just for one night in one place, and passing on again early next morning. The flocks are not so large as they were, however, for many millions of the birds have been destroyed; and as these pigeons never lay more than two eggs, they do not multiply very fast. In fact, this pigeon is already a rare bird.

PEACOCKS

What a magnificent bird the peacock is, with his great train raised and spread, so as to show off all the beautiful eye-like markings! And how _very_ proud of it he seems as he struts about to be admired, as though knowing quite well that everybody is looking at him!

People sometimes speak of this train as the "tail." But it really consists of those feathers which are called the tail-coverts, the true tail lying underneath it, and serving to support it when it is spread.

Peacocks are natives of Asia, and are found most commonly, perhaps, in India, where flocks of thirty or forty may often be seen, and one traveler tells us that he once saw quite fifteen hundred of these splendid birds all together! They are sometimes caught in a very curious way. The hunter rides up quietly to within a short distance of them as they are feeding on the ground, and then suddenly dashes at them at full speed. Of course they at once rise into the air, and just as they are passing out of reach he strikes at one of them with a very long whip, which coils round its neck like a lasso. Then all that he has to do is to pull it down to the ground.

In some parts of India, however, these birds are regarded by the natives as sacred, and no one is allowed to kill them, or even to take them alive.

TURKEYS

Everybody takes an interest in the turkey--more especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas time!--and many people think that it comes from the country of Turkey, but this is quite a mistake, for it is a native of North America, in many parts of which it is still found in great abundance. The domesticated turkey probably arose from the Mexican variety rather than from the more familiar wild turkey of the Northern States.

Some of the flocks seem to consist of cock birds only, and others of hens and young, the reason being that the cocks are very fierce and quarrelsome birds, and will attack and even kill the young ones if they have an opportunity. Until long after her little ones are fledged, indeed, the mother turkey has to take the greatest care of them; for not only are they in constant danger from their unnatural father, but all kinds of other enemies, such as foxes, lynxes, and horned owls, have to be guarded against as well. So she keeps them nearly always under cover, and when at last they are big enough to be taken for a little ramble, she never brings them back to the nest by the path by which they left it.

Turkeys often travel for very long distances. When they come to a broad river they perch in the upper branches of the tallest trees they can find, and then fly across together at a given signal. They are not very strong on the wing, and usually some of them fall into the water. But by spreading out their tails and paddling hard they generally manage to make their way to shore.

PHEASANTS

The pheasant is a native of Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor; but it has lived in Western Europe for so long that it is fully entitled to rank among British birds. It has so many enemies, however, that if it were not carefully preserved it would very soon disappear.

Pheasants nearly always live in woods, though they often venture out into the open fields to search for food, which consists of acorns, grain, beechnuts, seeds, and small insects. During the winter, however, they have to be fed, or they would be very likely to die from starvation.

These birds do not make a regular nest, the hen merely scratching a slight hollow in the ground, and there laying her ten to fourteen olive-brown eggs. When she is sitting it is difficult to see her, for her light-brown mottled plumage looks just like the dead leaves among which she is resting, and even the sharpest eye might often pass her by.

THE RED GROUSE

This bird is remarkable for two reasons. The first is, that it is found only in the British Isles, and not in any other part of the world; and the second is, that it varies so very greatly in color. Sometimes it is almost entirely black, sometimes it is reddish chestnut, and sometimes nearly all the feathers are broadly tipped with white.

The red grouse is found on moors and mountainsides wherever there is plenty of heath or heather, and where it can obtain the whortleberries, cranberries, and tender shoots of cotton-grass and sedge upon which it feeds. And though it has many natural enemies, such as hawks and crows, foxes and stoats, and while it is shot in thousands by sportsmen, it never seems to decrease in abundance.

As a general rule the grouse does not fly much, but runs with great swiftness among the heather. It makes a very rough nest of straws and twigs in a hollow in the ground, and often sits so closely on its eggs that it may almost be trodden on before it will move. When the little ones are hatched they seem to know without being taught how to conceal themselves in moments of danger, and if they cannot find cover will flatten themselves against the ground, where they look so much like stones that even the sharp eye of a hawk will pass them by.

PARTRIDGES

Partridges, of which our quail is an example, are found almost everywhere, being carefully protected in most countries for purposes of sport; and they lay so many eggs that they are scarcely likely to become less plentiful. Few nests contain less than ten eggs, while fifteen or even more are frequently laid; and instances have been recorded in which as many as thirty-three eggs have been found in a single nest, but in these cases two birds have most likely laid together. The mother bird sits very closely--so closely, indeed, that when she has nested in a meadow and the grass is being mown, she often fails to move out of the way of the scythe in time, and is found lying on the ground with her head cut off after the reapers have passed by.

When the little ones are hatched, both parents go about with them, and the covey, as it is called, keeps together all through the autumn and winter.