126 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [ETH. ANN, 38 
those of Koch-Griinberg, for the River Aiary (upper Rio Negro) 
Indians of the present day pull from the tame red macaws the green 
feathers at the base of the wings and smear the wounds with the 
fat of the pirardra fish, or of a certain toad. The new feathers 
become beautifully orange-yellow and retain this color, even if 
several times changed, as they are pulled out from time to time, 
for purposes of dance decorations (KG, 1, 84). Im Thurn was told by 
the Makusi that when the natural feathers are pulled out the place 
from which they are pulled is rubbed with faroah, the red dye obtained 
from Bizra orellana ... The bird is also made to drink water in 
which more faroah has been steeped, after which it is left for some 
months . . . at the end of which time new yellow feathers have grown 
in the place of the abstracted green ones (Ti, June, 1882, p. 28). 
According to Crévaux, the bird was made to eat certainfat. His obser- 
vations were taken on the Inirida, a branch of the Guaviare (upper Ori- 
noco). ‘Thus, as he reports, the Puimabo possess the secret of color- 
ing parrots yellow. They make them eat the fat of cajaro, a fish very 
common in the Guaviare... Thisfatis yellow. The parrot’s feath- 
ers first become spotted with yellow, and end by taking this color 
entirely (Cr,532). The Pomeroon Indians at the present time maintain 
that certain of the green parrots, if fed with yolk of egg, will change 
their feathers to a yellow color. The Indians on the banks of the 
Oyapock [Cayenne] have found the way artificially to engraft, if we 
may call it, a new plumage upon their parrots, of natural colours, 
though different from those they had originally received from nature. 
This they do by pulling some of their feathers, and rubbing the part 
with the blood of certain frogs, which is called in Cayenne “ orna- 
menting a parrot.” Perhaps the whole secret consists in bathing 
the part pulled with some sharp liquor, or, perhaps, there is no need 
of any preparation, and it is an experiment yet to bemade. In effect 
it does not seem a whit more extraordinary to see red or yellow feathers 
grow upon a bird, instead of green that have been plucked from it, 
than to see white hairs grow upon the back of a horse that has been 
hurt, in the room of black which were there before (LCo, 87). In 
connection with this question of artificial feather coloration, the fol- 
lowing remarks of J. J. Quelch will prove of interest: ‘‘A change, 
produced by artificial means, in the coloration of birds, and to which 
I can find no reference in any published volume, seems to be more or 
less commonly practiced by bird-stuffers in the colony—I refer to 
the change of the natural purple tints in the colors of the cotingas, 
the purple being changed to a lively red by the application of heat in 
each case to the feathers of the dead bird. It seems possible that this 
change can also be produced in the feathers of the living bird, but I 
have not been able to obtain any satisfactory information on this 
point.” (Ti, June, 1887, p. 142.) 
