This trade is curious, but far from extensive as regards street-sale.
There is, moreover, contrary to what might be expected, a good deal
of “duffing” about it. The “duffer” in English birds disguises them
so that they shall look like foreigners; the duffer in what are
unquestionably foreign birds disguises them that they may look _more_
foreign--more Indian than in the Indies.
The word “Duffer,” I may mention, appears to be connected with the
German _Durffen_, to want, to be needy, and so to mean literally
a needy or indigent man, even as the word _Pedlar_ has the same
origin--being derived from the German _Bettler_, and the Dutch
_Bedelaar_--a beggar. The verb _Durffen_, means also to dare, to be so
bold as to do; hence, to _Durff_, or _Duff_, would signify to resort to
any impudent trick.
The supply of parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, Java sparrows, or St.
Helena birds, is not in the regular way of consignment from a merchant
abroad to one in London. The commanders and mates of merchant vessels
bring over large quantities; and often enough the seamen are allowed to
bring parrots or cockatoos in the homeward-bound ship from the Indies
or the African coast, or from other tropical countries, either to
beguile the tedium of the voyage, for presents to their friends, or,
as in some cases, for sale on their reaching an English port. More, I
am assured, although statistics are hardly possible on such a subject,
are brought to London, and perhaps by one-third, than to all the other
ports of Great Britain collectively. Even on board the vessels of the
royal navy, the importation of parrots used to be allowed as a sort
of boon to the seamen. I was told by an old naval officer that once,
after a long detention on the west coast of Africa, his ship was
ordered home, and, as an acknowledgment of the good behaviour of his
men, he permitted them to bring parrots, cockatoos, or any foreign
birds, home with them, not limiting the number, but of course under
the inspection of the petty officers, that there might be no violation
of the cleanliness which always distinguishes a vessel of war. Along
the African coast, to the southward of Sierra Leone, the men were not
allowed to land, both on account of the unhealthiness of the shores,
and of the surf, which rendered landing highly dangerous, a danger,
however, which the seamen would not have scrupled to brave, and
recklessly enough, for any impulse of the minute. As if by instinct,
however, the natives seemed to know what was wanted, for they came off
from the shores in their light canoes, which danced like feathers on
the surf, and brought boat-loads of birds; these the seamen bought of
them, or possessed themselves of in the way of barter.
Before the ship took her final departure, however, she was reported
as utterly uninhabitable below, from the incessant din and clamour:
“We might as well have a pack of women aboard, sir,” was the ungallant
remark of one of the petty officers to his commander. Orders were then
given that the parrots, &c., should be “thinned,” so that there might
not be such an unceasing noise. This was accordingly done. How many
were set at liberty and made for the shore--for the seamen in this
instance did not kill them for their skins, as is not unfrequently
the case--the commander did not know. He could but conjecture; and he
conjectured that something like a thousand were released; and even
after that, and after the mortality which takes place among these birds
in the course of a long voyage, a very great number were brought to
Plymouth. Of these, again, a great number were sent or conveyed under
the care of the sailors to London, when the ship was paid off. The
same officer endeavoured on this voyage to bring home some very large
pine-apples, which flavoured, and most deliciously, parts of the ship
when she had been a long time at sea; but every one of them rotted, and
had to be thrown overboard. He fell into the error, Captain ---- said,
of having the finest fruit selected for the experiment; an error which
the Bahama merchants had avoided, and consequently they succeeded where
he failed. How the sailors fed the parrots, my informant could hardly
guess, but they brought a number of very fine birds to England, some of
them with well-cultivated powers of speech.
This, as I shall show, is one of the ways by which the London supply of
parrots, &c., is obtained; but the permission, as to the importation
of these brightly-feathered birds, is, I understand, rarely allowed
at present to the seamen in the royal navy. The far greater supply,
indeed more than 90 per cent. of the whole of the birds imported, is
from the merchant-service. I have already stated, on the very best
authority, the motives which induce merchant-seamen to bring over
parrots and cockatoos. That to bring them over is an inducement to some
to engage in an African voyage is shown by the following statement,
which was made to me, in the course of a long inquiry, published in my
letters in the _Morning Chronicle_, concerning the condition of the
merchant-seamen.
“I would never go to that African coast again, only I make a pound or
two in birds. We buy parrots, gray parrots chiefly, of the natives,
who come aboard in their canoes. We sometimes pay 6_s._ or 7_s._, in
Africa, for a fine bird. I have known 200 parrots on board; they make a
precious noise; but half the birds die before they get to England. Some
captains won’t allow parrots.”
When the seamen have settled themselves after landing in England,
they perhaps find that there is no room in their boarding-houses for
their parrots; these birds are not admitted into the Sailors’ Home;
the seamen’s friends are stocked with the birds, and look upon another
parrot as but another intruder, an unwelcome pensioner. There remains
but one course--to sell the birds, and they are generally sold to a
highly respectable man, Mr. M. Samuel, of Upper East Smithfield; and
it is from him, though not always directly, that the shopkeepers and
street-sellers derive their stock-in-trade. There is also a further
motive for the disposal of parrots, paroquets, and cockatoos to a
merchant. The seafaring owner of those really magnificent birds,
perhaps, squanders his money, perhaps he gets “skinned” (stripped of
his clothes and money from being hocussed, or tempted to helpless
drunkenness), or he chooses to sell them, and he or his boarding-house
keeper takes the birds to Mr. Samuel, and sells them for what he can
get; but I heard from three very intelligent seamen whom I met with in
the course of my inquiry, and by mere chance, that Mr. Samuel’s price
was fair and his money sure, considering everything, for there is
usually a qualification to every praise. It is certainly surprising,
under these circumstances, that such numbers of these birds should thus
be disposed of.
Parrots are as gladly, or more gladly, got rid of, in any manner, in
different regions in the continents of Asia and America, than with
us are even rats from a granary. Dr. Stanley, after speaking of the
beauty of a flight of parrots, says:--“The husbandman who sees them
hastening through the air, with loud and impatient screams, looks upon
them with dismay and detestation, knowing that the produce of his
labour and industry is in jeopardy, when visited by such a voracious
multitude of pilferers, who, like the locusts of Egypt, desolate whole
tracts of country by their unsparing ravages.” A contrast with their
harmlessness, in a gilded cage in the houses of the wealthy, with us!
The destructiveness of these birds, is then, one reason why seamen can
obtain them so readily and cheaply, for the natives take pleasure in
catching them; while as to plentifulness, the tropical regions teem
with bird, as with insect and reptile, life.
Of parrots, paroquets, and cockatoos, there are 3000 imported to London
in the way I have described, and in about equal proportions. They are
sold, wholesale, from 5_s._ to 30_s._ each.
There are now only three men selling these brilliant birds regularly in
the streets, and in the fair way of trade; but there are sometimes as
many as 18 so engaged. The price given by a hawker for a cockatoo, &c.,
is 8_s._ or 10_s._, and they are retailed at from 15_s._ to 30_s._,
or more, “if it can be got.” The purchasers are the wealthier classes
who can afford to indulge their tastes. Of late years, however, I am
told, a parrot or a cockatoo seems to be considered indispensable to
an inn (not a gin-palace), and the innkeepers have been among the best
customers of the street parrot-sellers. In the neighbourhood of the
docks, and indeed along the whole river side below London-bridge, it
is almost impossible for a street-seller to dispose of a parrot to an
innkeeper, or indeed to any one, as they are supplied by the seamen.
A parrot which has been taught to talk is worth from 4_l._ to 10_l._,
according to its proficiency in speech. About 500 of these birds are
sold yearly by the street-hawkers, at an outlay to the public of from
500_l._ to 600_l._
Java sparrows, from the East Indies, and from the Islands of the
Archipelago, are brought to London, but considerable quantities die
during the voyage and in this country; for, though hardy enough, not
more than one in three survives being “taken off the paddy seed.” About
10,000, however, are sold annually, in London, at 1_s._ 6_d._ each, but
a very small proportion by street-hawking, as the Java sparrows are
chiefly in demand for the aviaries of the rich in town and country. In
some years not above 100 may be sold in the streets; in others, as many
as 500.
In St. Helena birds, known also as wax-bills and red-backs, there is
a trade to the same extent, both as regards number and price; but the
street-sale is perhaps 10 per cent. lower.