252



Mr. Albert Pam,



parts of the country—pure Indians, negroes, mulattos and whites,

each with a bird or birds to sell. There are birds of all sizes and

all colours, from Humming Birds to birds of prey, from Canaries to

Parrots and Curassows. It is a mystery who buys or wants to

buy any of this assortment, as it always seemed that, apart from

Canaries—for which there appears to be a ready market—my

brother and I were the only purchasers. Most of the sellers were

“peons,” i.e., labourers, who had come to spend the Sunday or

“fiesta ” in Caracas, and had brought birds, caught during the week,

to sell and thus help to pay expenses. But there are two regular

bird dealers, an Italian and a native half-caste; the former

specializes in Canaries : the latter deals in anything he can pick up.

The birds are brought into the market in small wicker cages, some

of which are so full that the birds can hardly move ; but Parrots

mostly stroll about, sometimes attached to a stick by one leg,

sometimes on the seller’s shoulder, and sometimes quite loose, and

it is a usual thing for one to escape or climb up a tree unobserved—

a great deal of shouting, stone-throwing, and the use of long canes

is necessary before the truant is recaptured. Sometimes a small

Pinch or Tanager, locally worth perhaps a farthing, escapes from a

cage, and then all the small half-naked urchins of the neighbourhood

flock round and shout while the owner tries to approach the bird

with a long stick covered at the point with bird lime. Also loose,

and tied to a tree stump by a string round one leg, can be seen

Guans, Curassows, Sun Bitterns, Screamers, Ducks, and on rare

occasions an Orinoco Goose. The sellers, cages and loose birds

absolutely cover the ground, and it is with the greatest difficulty

that a visitor can pick his way through on a busy day without the

fear of treading on something. The assortment in each cage is as

varied as the whole collection, Humming Birds with Pinches, Doves,

Thrushes and Tanagers, all mixed up regardless of size—but as most

of the birds are freshly caught, they are too wild to trouble about

doing each other any harm. But the natives have found* that

Hang-nests are dangerous neighbours, and mostly keep these in cages

by themselves.


Most, if not all, cages are provided with food and water for

the birds, seed for the Pinches and bananas for the others;



