64


Military Macaws. However, while waiting for those, we might

take the smaller race of Macaws. I hardly expect any one will

tell us anything about Spix's, but there remain the Severe

Macaw, the Noble Macaw, and Illiger's.


I do not know that I could distinguish the Severe and

Noble Macaws without a book to help me, but Illiger's is much

smaller : it is, I suppose, the smallest Macaw. About this I can

say one or two words, and Mr. Cresswell will, I hope, supplement

what I have to say with a few notes on one now in his posses-

sion. And, as he has the living bird before him, I will leave to

him the description of the plumage.


I digress here to say that, talking of the description of

Parrots, an3rone who devotes himself to Parrots should not fail

to have the British Museum Catalogue of Parrots. It is simply

invaluable for identifying them.


The first time I saw an Illiger's Macaw was somewhere

about i860, in the Pantheon. I suppose there are few who

recollect the old Pantheon. It was like the Solio Bazaar, but to

my mind far more attractive. And then one entrance (the

entrance from Great Marlborough Street, I think,) was a long

glass-roofed vestibule, rising by steps to a circular space with a

fountain in the middle, round which were the Parrots. The

Pantheon proper was entered by a door to the right of the

fountain. The whole vestibule was given up to plants and birds.

Chained to a perch, close to the fountain, was a delightfully tame

little Macaw. I longed to buy him, but I suppose I had not room

for him, or that Mr. Isaacs and myself could not come to terms,,

for he did not become mine.


Well, that lUiger didn't come off. But I had a friend

whose brother had a West Indian Kstate, and who sent him lots

of Parrots, and those rare ones— alas ! thirtj^-eight were once

lost in one wreck ! Amongst others, my friend had an lUiger

sent him, and I took care of it for him. But I cannot say that it

was tame, nor did it talk ; it left me with the idea that I might

very well leave Illiger's Macaw alone for the future, as not being

likely to realise my ideal. It is only since my experience of

other Macaws has shown me how great the Macaws' powers of

talking are, and how affectionate they may be, that I have

reconsidered the question. And now, were I to have an empty

cage, and I saw a very tame lUiger, and particularly if that

lUiger were to say a word or two, I might buy it. I saj^ "if it

said a word or two," for in Illiger's Macaw I am sure sex would

be all important. I very much doubt the hens talking at all.



