68



when the roads are in good condition, this is seven days ride.

The traveller has to cross the Chimborazo Pass at an altitude of

14,200 ft., and, on coming up from the coast, the change from the

steaming heat of the forests to the icy winds from the snows, is

very rapid, and trying alike to man and beast.


The Ecuadorians seem to take no interest whatever in the

bird life which surrounds them on every side, and it is quite the

exception rather than the rule to find them keeping birds in

captivity, and when they do, their ambition does not soar beyond

a Parrot. However, at times in Guayaquil, birds are offered for

sale in fair quantities, even if the varieties in vogue are limited,

No doubt the European population has caused a certain demand

for them there, and prices range very cheap indeed—1 real (ajd.)

or 2 reals each seems to be the usual price for almost any bird.

At the former price can be bought any number of the little

Orange-flanked Parrakeets, and very tame indeed they all seem.

These birds are exceedingly common in the neighbourhood, and

can be met with almost anywhere in vast flocks. “Paviches”

they are locally called. They commit great damage in the banana

plantations, and bananas seem to be their staple food in captivity.

In fact, when the natives keep a bird of any kind, they seem

to think, and apparently rightly, it doesn’t want any other

food beyond bananas or oranges. I noticed almost the same

thing in the East Indian Islands : the natives there, seldom gave

a bird anything to eat beyond boiled rice, the only change being

an occasional banana. Many animals which decidedly ought to

have had quite a different diet, they kept on the universal rice

also. How long they survived it I am unable to say, but in some

cases they seemed healthy enough. Certain specimens of

Ecledtus, Purple-capped, Ceram, and other Tories which

came under my notice, had lived entirely on plainly

boiled rice, and sometimes a banana, for several years in

some instances. I am often inclined to think that we give

our birds far too many delicacies in captivity, and that

many kinds would live with us longer than they do, on a plainer

diet. I have noticed many times, in bringing birds home from

abroad, that after one has weaned them off on to insectivorous

and other foods, they have lost much of the brilliancy of

colouring which they had when bananas formed their sole diet.


Another bird common all along the western side of

Ecuador, and exceedingly common in parts of the province of

Cauca, in Columbia, is the Red-faced Conure (C. 7 'ubrolarvatus).

This very handsome bird seems to be not very well known with



