48 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



attach itself to some one member of the family and 

 follow him or her about most of the day. The 

 trumpeter loved and took an interest in every one of 

 the house, including the stranger within the gates, 

 but was specially devoted to one or two individuals. 



It is right to remember that this beautiful dis- 

 position of the trumpeter and all its pretty actions 

 have not been acquired through companionship with 

 human beings : they are mere survivals of its own 

 wild life in the forest with its own fellows, and possibly 

 with birds of other species with which it associates. 

 At all events, I have heard of cases in which a tame 

 trumpeter, in a country house in Brazil or Venezuela, 

 where fowls and birds of various kinds were kept and 

 allowed to roam about at will, placing himself in 

 charge of the others, attending them at their feeding- 

 grounds, keeping watch, giving the alarm at the ap- 

 proach of danger, and bringing or hunting them home 

 at roosting-time. 



If my reader happens not to be of those who regard 

 a bird merely as a creature to be taken and destroyed 

 for man's pleasure or for the decoration of his women, 

 who like a lovely hat to match the lovely spirit within, 

 I trust that he will not think that these be tall stories 

 about a wise grey goose in grey north lands and a 

 benevolent trumpeter in the tropics, for then he will 

 perhaps say that the story I have got to tell in con- 

 clusion is taller still. 



It is a common fact in natural history that the males 

 of certain species exhibit a good deal of anxiety about 



