PATAGONIAN PARROT 29 



their powerful beaks. When a horseman appears 

 in the distance they rise in a compact flock, with loud 

 harsh screams, and hover above him, within a very 

 few yards of his head, their combined dissonant 

 voices producing an uproar which is only equalled 

 in that pandemonium of noises, the Parrot-house in 

 the Zoological Gardens of London. They are 

 extremely social, so much so that their flocks do not 

 break up in the breeding-season ; and their burrows, 

 which they excavate in a perpendicular cliff or high 

 bank, are placed close together; so that when the 

 gauchos take the young birds esteemed a great 

 delicacy the person who ventures down by means 

 of a rope attached to his waist is able to rifle a colony. 

 The burrow is three to five feet deep, and four white 

 eggs are deposited on a slight nest at the extremity. 

 I have only tasted the old birds, and found their 

 flesh very bitter, scarcely palatable. 



The natives say that this species cannot be taught 

 to speak ; and it is certain that the few individuals 

 I have seen tame were unable to articulate. 



Doubtless these Parrots were originally stray 

 colonists from the tropics, although now resident 

 in so cold a country as Patagonia. When viewed 

 closely one would also imagine that they must at 

 one time have been brilliant - plumaged birds ; 

 but either natural selection or the direct effect of 

 a bleak climate has given a sombre shade to their 

 colours green, blue, yellow, and crimson ; and 

 when seen flying at a distance, or in cloudy weather, 

 they look as dark as crows. 



