J2S



PARROT NOTES.


By the Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dutton.


Continued from page 85.


AMAZONS ( Continued).


Our Secretary has reminded me that I have not written

any Parrot Notes for the last number, so I again take up my

pen.


Before beginning, I should like to correct a printer’s

error in 1113^ last “ Note.” My answer about the uncertainty

of Pomeranian dogs’ tempers was not “ Not all,” but “ Not at

all,” i.e., Poms, are certain bad, or certain good, tempers. You

always know where you are with a Pom., which is exactly what

you do not with an Amazon, as a rule.


However, to go on with the Amazons. Having done with

the “Golden-nape” and the “Double-fronted,” the turn of the

Common Amazon comes next. This is the “ Blue-fronted ” or

Chrysotis cestiva. Few Parrots are so common : few can be

better known. As to the plumage, there is 110 Parrot so diverse.

Many other species of Parrot show hardly any difference between

one specimen and another. The person who feeds them may

know one Pennant or one Blue Mountain from another; but to

the casual observer they must be absolutety alike. Now, the

difference between two Blue-fronted Amazons can be detected by

the most indifferent onlooker. Some have very little yellow on

the throat, some a great deal. No Parrot is so often variegated,,

or throws out so mail}'of what the dealers call “King” birds.

And very few Parrots are so handsome as a well-variegated Blue-

fronted Amazon. I saw last year, at Pring’s shop, a beautiful

bird with both wings entirety light }^ellow. It might have been

shown as an “ evenly marked ” bird. Whoever may have been

the purchaser could hardly have got a handsomer bird.


But though the Blue-fronted Amazon is a very hardy bird,

and generalty very tame, I am not inclined to class it, as a

rule, as a first-rate talker. It learns to sa)^ a few things easily::

it learns to sing more easily than a Grey, but it is fonder of

imitating sounds than words. It can give an admirable imitation

of a conversation of which 3^011 cannot make out the words. It

laughs better than any Grey: it goes into fits of laughter,,

in which you cannot help joining, so great an effedt of merriment

do they produce. It can be trained to fly loose much more

easity than a Gre3 r , because all the Amazons have much greater



