65


At any rate, Mr. Cresswell has an Illiger which does talk,

and, if he will be kind enough to tell our Society about it, I

think we shall have some idea of the merits of the species as a

cage-bird.



ILLIGER'S MACAW.

By O. E. CresswelIv.


I formerly had a prejudice against all Macaws ; I can't tell

-why, probably because they screamed and sometimes prevented

me from enjoying the sight of other Parrots. I thought I never

would have a Macaw, but fate decreed otherwise.


In 1893 I was at Antwerp ; there, in the Zoo, where most

of the birds are on sale, were several Illiger's Macaws, each in a

rather dreary pen-like cage. The servant, who at home has

chief care of my foreign birds, was with me, and reported that

amongst these Illigers w^as a very interesting bird which he

hoped I would buy. Certainly the bird had taken a great fancy

to him, and seemed to extend this affection to myself ; but I

regretfully refused to buy any more birds — I had already with

me Doves from Voss's establishment at Cologne, and had just

bought a Redrump, which, I am glad to say, is still close by me

as I write. I could hardly descend at hotels with more boxes of

birds ! The poor Illiger seemed to implore us to take him, and

despairingly called "cockie" as I left the house. I had learnt

that there evidently might be character in an Illiger ; it is, too,

I believe, quite the smallest of about thirty known varieties of

Macaws, and this is an advantage. For those who have never

seen one, I may say that in body the Illiger is about the size of

a Grey Parrot, though, from its long tail, it looks larger. The

face has the bare skin of most of the Macaws ; over the beak is

a scarlet diadem ; the general body-colour is green, shading

from a kind of blue bloom on the head into rich yellowish green ;

the lower breast is scarlet, the primary wing-feathers blue. Its

full, long tail is extremely beautiful : on the upper side the

feathers are of deep claret colour shading into peacock blue,

.and on the under side soft yellow, like autumnal leaves. I

collect them at the moult, and the}^ are a study of shades.


The spring after my visit to Antwerp a I^ondon bird

dealer owed me £1. 1 had sent it for a Rockpeplar, which he

pretended to have despatched, but at last confessed he had not.

His man advised me to take anything I could get as the master

was vei-y hard up. I looked round the shop, but saw nothing



