Various are the expedients adopted for their destruction in different parts of the world. The Chilians rush out with all speed when they see the parrots settling, and attack them with sticks. The Australians rouse them from their sleeping-place, and then throw their boomerangs amongst the retreating flock. Adventurous men let themselves down the rocks in which the South American species breed, to draw the young out of their holes with hooks; or shooting parties and hunters endeavour to steal upon them unawares. When it is found impossible to climb the trees on which they breed, these are cut down, and nets and limed twigs placed around to catch the young. The flesh of the slaughtered birds is often eaten, although hard and tough, or is made into excellent soup. Very frequently they are sought for on account of their splendid plumage. "There is nothing more natural," says the Prince von Wied, "than this most simple and pleasing decoration, to the use of which savages are much addicted; and very beautiful are the articles made from feathers by entirely untaught tribes; many of the aborigines of Brazil particularly excelled in this kind of work." The love for parrot feathers is very ancient. "In long forgotten times," says Pöppig, "the inhabitants of the tropical forests brought arara feathers as tribute to the Incas, for the decoration of their palaces, and early historians inform us that these feathers and the 'Koka' were the only produce which led to the peopling and cultivation of the formidably hot districts in which they abound." It is said that Alexander the Great brought tame parrots from India, and in later times these birds were taken in great numbers to Rome, where the favour in which they were held was carried to such excess that it was often reproved in the open forum. "Oh, unhappy Rome!" cried that severe censor Marcus Portius Cato; "have we lived to see the day when our women nurse dogs upon their laps, and our men go about with parrots on their hands?" The Romans kept them in cages made of silver, tortoise-shell, and ivory, and had tutors who particularly taught them to utter the word Cæsar; in those days the price of a parrot that could speak exceeded that of a slave. Ovid did not consider it beneath him to sing their praises, and Heliogabalus thought he could not set anything more delicate than parrots' heads before his guests. In Nero's reign, it would seem, only Indian species were known; but probably at a later period African parrots were introduced. During the Crusades these birds adorned the houses of the rich, and the first discoverers of America found tame parrots in the huts of the natives. Von Schomburghk tells us, that in their native lands, when tame, they are allowed to fly about, without having their wings clipped. "I saw many," he writes, "which joined the flocks that were living over the village during the day, and returned to their master's hut at night."