Notes on Jitiii^lc and Other Wild Life. 



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life without knowing" the single purpose affection of a collie or 

 an Airedale for his master has missed something. To be fully 

 aware that some one animal believes in you " through and 

 tlirough " and, clinging to you alone, or to you before all 

 others, hangs upon your words and lives upon your approval, 

 not because you are wise, wealthy or beautiful, but sim})ly 

 because " you are you " — such unselfish devotion is mighty 

 rare in this unhappy world, and is well worth living for. 



This quality, best known among the canine race, is by 

 no means confined to them ; and you would be surprised to learn, 

 if you have not studied the subject, how developed it is in many 

 species of birds. It is marked in parrots, not only in the 

 larger species — Amazons, African greys. Macaws, etc., — but 

 among many of the parrakeets. lorikeets, conures and others. 



Numerous individuals of these highly intelligent birds 

 have made faithful and acceptable companions for their human 

 relatives. 



Just why a parrot selects some particular man, woman or 

 child as his " aflfinity " nobody exactly knows, except that 

 domesticated lairds generally carry out, as far as possible, the 

 inherited, daily programme of their wild state. Being mono- 

 gamous (parrots mate early and retain the same companion 

 until death parts them), roosting, feeding, flying, and living 

 their forest life, strictly paired; it appears that when tamed and 

 debarred from mating with one of their own species tney choose 

 an.other, of the human race! 



Happy is the bird who has really found a mate for whom 

 liis soul longs, and thrice unhappy if surrounded by uncongenial 

 people who, knowing him not. have bought him merely on 

 account of his beautiful plumage or his conversational powers 

 without consideration of the all-important question " does he 

 like me ?" — not, do I like him ?" 



When I was at the N.Y. Zoological Station, Kartabo, last 

 year. 1 was fortunate in making the acquaintance of another 

 one-man " bird, a fine, Indian-raised example of the Curassow 

 (Crax nigra) or, as the Guiana natives call him, the Powee or 

 Powis Bird, from his plaintive call of poivec-poivcc. He had a 

 beautiful, black, iridescent mantle, white, downy underparts, 

 and a highly ornamental, curly crest; and was about the size 

 of a small turkey. 



