which the whole band starts at once and plunders the field in no
time. The Australian settlers have the greatest difficulties in
beguiling the prudence of the parrots; but if man, with all his art
and weapons, has succeeded in killing some of them, the cacadoos
become so prudent and watchful that they henceforward baffle all
stratagems.(22)

There can be no doubt that it is the practice of life in
society which enables the parrots to attain that very high level
of almost human intelligence and almost human feelings which we
know in them. Their high intelligence has induced the best
naturalists to describe some species, namely the grey parrot, as
the "birdman." As to their mutual attachment it is known that
when a parrot has been killed by a hunter, the others fly over
the corpse of their comrade with shrieks of complaints and
"themselves fall the victims of their friendship," as Audubon
said; and when two captive parrots, though belonging to two
different species, have contracted mutual friendship, the
accidental death of one of the two friends has sometimes been
followed by the death from grief and sorrow of the other friend.
It is no less evident that in their societies they find
infinitely more protection than they possibly might find in any
ideal development of beak and claw. Very few birds of prey or
mammals dare attack any but the smaller species of parrots, and
Brehm is absolutely right in saying of the parrots, as he also
says of the cranes and the sociable monkeys, that they hardly
have any enemies besides men; and he adds: "It is most probable
that the larger parrots succumb chiefly to old age rather than
die from the claws of any enemies." Only man, owing to his still
more superior intelligence and weapons, also derived from