174



III.— THE HAWK-HEADED PARROT.


Perhaps the Hawk-headed Parrot ( Deroptyus accipUrimis )

which forms a genus by itself, may best come after the Conures.

I take the description from the British Museum Catalogue, which,

however, classes it after Pionus, and puts it away altogether from

Co7niriis.


''Adult male. Green ; head brown, frontal edge and lores

darker ; pileum hoary grey (I should have called it muddy

white) ; sides of the head with hoary shaft-streaks ; long feathers

of the nape, and feathers of the breast and abdomen, dark red

with the edges blue ; bastard wing, primary coverts, and primaries

black ; secondaries green, with the tips black, slightly tinged

with blue ; tail feathers green, tinged with blue towards the

tip, the blue increasing towards the outer feather, which has the

outer web blue, except at the base ; greater under wing-coverts,

quills, and tail feathers below, black ; the lateral tail-feathers

have dull red spots at the bases of the inner webs ; bill dusky

horn colour : feet black ; iris brown. Total length 14 inches ;

wing 8 ; tail 6-4.


Specimens from Ecuador and Maranham are larger."


Perhaps these latter may account for Russ saying the bird

is almost as large as a Raven. Certainly I never saw one as

large as a Rook.


It has a curious habit of puffing out all its head and neck

feathers when excited, like the Salmon-crested Cockatoo.


They are not very common, and are more often sent or

brought over privately. Dr. Greene found one a very good

talker. That has not been my experience. The birds I had

were not very tame, and the tamest, when it got used to me, was

treacherous, and would bite when I put its tins into the cage.

It was very noisy at times. I think their character as pets is

very like that of the Conures, whatever their structure may

be. I expect one may say of all that, if you rear the young by

hand, you might find the cock birds clever and companionable,

but that unless they are quite tame, they are better in a Zoological

Garden than in a private house.



