The King Parrots Poem by Francis Duggan

In Sherbrooke woods from time to time i've seen
Birds with bluish tails and wings of leaf like green
And males with scarlet undersides and head
And females with more green on them than red.

Like all members of the parrot family
They make their nest in hollow of old tree
And in the Spring or early Summer lay
Three to six eggs of lightish pale to gray.

The king parrots are quite attractive birds
But orchardist for them use coarser words
In early Spring they come at dawn of day
And from orchard trees strip the young buds away.

The king parrots of human kind quite shy
If human near to other tree they fly
They fly away when human venture near
Perhaps the guns of orchardist they fear.

At dawn they raid the orchards in Springtime
And eat the fruit tree buds 'their only crime'
These king parrots such brightly coloured birds
Though orchardist for them use coarser words.