The Wonders of the Jungle Volume I Part 17

But one day the King said that they must all leave that city, and go and build another city. So everybody left the city of Amber, and to-day it still stands perfect--lovely marble palaces and mansions, with hundreds of bushes of wild roses growing all around them.

n.o.body lives there, except thousands and thousands of wild parrots, that have made their nests upon the roofs of the palaces, in the porticoes and balconies, and upon the tops of the marble pillars and columns.

Just think of that lovely sight! The blue sky above, the red roses on the ground below, and the white marble palaces between the blue sky and the red roses; and many thousands of green parrots flitting across the sky, and from palace to rose bush. Broad bands of red, white, and blue, with bright flashes of green between them!

Another lovely sight is a flock of wild parrots in the jungle, going home to roost at sunset. I once saw that sight. Their beautiful green wings and the patches of yellow on their heads shone amidst the gorgeous colors of the sunset. And as the parrots flew on and on, many thousands of them, their own colors mingled with the colors of the sunset in ever-changing bands. They flew toward the setting sun, and pa.s.sed out of sight right into the sun, as it were.

After seeing a sight like that--seeing G.o.d's lovely creatures flying about like happy children at play--who wants to see a bird boxed up in a cage?

_The c.o.c.katoo_

Another bright bird which you may have seen in a cage, or chained to a stand, is the _c.o.c.katoo_. He is a cousin of the parrot, but much larger, and far more gorgeous. He has a beautiful _crest_ of red and orange feathers on his head. His wings are a rosy pink in color; and he has a long pink and white tail.

In other ways he is very much like the parrot. He lives chiefly in the countries of southern Asia, and in the islands between Asia and Australia.

_The Peac.o.c.k_

And now I come to the most beautiful bird of all, the _peac.o.c.k_. When he spreads out his long tail, it looks just like a lady's fan, only far lovelier than any fan made by men. In color the tail is a kind of blue and green, with touches of gold and violet, and with "eyes"

dotted all over it in shades of many other colors.

The peac.o.c.k can also close up his tail like a fan. Then the long feathers of the tail all come together in many folds, and stand out a yard long behind him.

The peac.o.c.k is found wild in India and in countries near there, but has now been brought into America and Europe. You may even have seen the peac.o.c.k in the parks and gardens of some cities, where he lives quite peacefully, at least in the summer months. In the winter, of course, he must have a warm place indoors.

The peac.o.c.k is really the Papa bird, and the Mamma bird is called the _peahen_. She has not the gorgeous tail and the lovely feathers that he has; so she looks quite plain. You will find that _among animals the Papas are often much prettier than the Mammas_.

That seems very strange, does it not? Among us, of course, the Mammas are always prettier than the Papas!

But in another book I shall explain _why_ the Papas among animals are often prettier than the Mammas.

_The Golden Pheasant_

There is another beautiful bird which has been brought to America, and now lives here; it is the _golden pheasant_. Once upon a time he lived only in China; but a few years ago people brought a number of golden pheasants to America, and put them in the forests of Oregon and Washington. So now there are many thousands of golden pheasants flying about and making their nests there.

There are other kinds of pheasants in England and in some parts of Europe, and these the people shoot and eat. But the golden pheasant is much too beautiful to eat. His feathers are as lovely as the sunset--gold and yellow and orange, with blue and deep crimson; and all these colors are laid out on his feathers in such a beautiful pattern that to look at him you would think you were dreaming, and not looking at a real bird.

Man, who toils with his hands, cannot make such lovely colors as those of the birds of the air, and of the flowers in the fields, which do not toil.

_The Snowy Egret_

And now, my dear children, I shall finish this chapter by telling you about a beautiful bird that once lived quite wild in great numbers in the United States. This bird has lovely soft feathers, which are pure white; so it is called the _snowy egret_. The feathers are as soft as silk. They are also long, with a gentle droop at the end.

Because these feathers are so lovely, rich women want to wear them in their hats; and these rich women are willing to pay a great deal of money for the egret feathers. So, for the sake of the money, hunters go wherever these lovely birds are to be found, and catch and kill them, and get the feathers. In fact, they have killed off so many of these lovely birds, to get feathers for rich women's hats, that to-day there are hardly any snowy egrets left in the United States.

Worse than that, the hunters killed the Papa and Mamma egrets just when their babies were born, because at that time the feathers of the snowy egrets were the softest and loveliest. And so, for each Papa and Mamma egret which the cruel hunters killed, they left a dozen _baby birds in their nests to starve and die_. Think of that!

Now, my dear children, I want the little girls among you to remember this, especially the little girls who are lucky enough to have rich Papas and Mammas. You can grow up to be beautiful, and look beautiful, without wearing these egret feathers. There are women who try to look beautiful, but who do not think of the pain they give to G.o.d's innocent creatures.

So, if ever you want to wear egret feathers, think of the dozen baby egrets who must starve and die if you are to have them.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Snowy Egrets Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York]

CHAPTER XVI

The Caged Parrot

I shall finish this book by telling you a story--a true story, which, I hope, will make you think.

Many years ago a sea captain returned to his home in the north of Scotland, after sailing the sea for a long time. He brought with him a parrot. The parrot had lived in South America, where the people speak the Spanish language. So all the words the parrot knew were in Spanish.

The captain knew Spanish quite well, and often talked to the parrot in that language. But after a time the captain died, and there was n.o.body in that part of Scotland who could talk to the parrot.

The parrot grew silent, and never opened his mouth to say a word. But he was thinking of his friend who was dead, and whose words in Spanish had reminded him of his sunny home. The people around him did not know that, and thought nothing of his silence. So the parrot in his cold and bleak cage pined and pined for his sunny home land, but never a word did he say.

Forty years pa.s.sed, and a new set of people came to live there. They took no notice of the silent old parrot. They put food and drink in the cage, but knew nothing about him except that he had been in the cage for many years. For a parrot lives much longer than a man--sometimes one hundred years.

One day a sailor came to the house. He had lived in South America, and knew Spanish. He saw the parrot sitting in his cage, all alone and silent, with his head bent down, and his beak on his breast. Then the sailor spoke to the parrot in Spanish.

The parrot looked up, as if he had awakened from a long, long dream.

Something reminded him of the days of his youth, when he was a happy bird flying about over the sunny fields of South America. Then he remembered the language of his youth, which he had not spoken for forty years.

Suddenly he flapped his wings in joy, and spoke again. He spoke all the Spanish words he knew, one after another. He spoke to that sailor as to a friend come to him from his own home land. He flapped his wings against the bars, and finally dropped to the floor of the cage, dead. He had died in the thought of his bygone happy days.

My dear children, I am closing this book with this story, because I want you to learn a great lesson from it: _be kind to all animals_.

I know that you would never willfully hurt any animal. But that is not enough. You may think that you are very kind to some creature, because you feed it and pet it; but all the same you may be very cruel, though you do not mean to be so.

You may think it is great fun to have a pretty bird in a cage. But is it any fun _for the bird_? How would _you_ like to be shut up in a cage all your life, instead of playing about in G.o.d's free air and living in your own home? The bird wants to fly about and live in his nest in his own home land. Think of that when you wish to put a bird in a cage.

Children who are kind to all animals grow up to be men and women who are kind to other people. And it is only by being kind to others that we ourselves _deserve_ to be happy and _are_ happy.

Remember all that I have said, till I come back and talk to you again in the next book. Then I shall tell you many more Wonders of the Jungle.

Till then, as they say in the Orient, G.o.d and His peace be with you!