72 E. Maud Knobel—Character in Blue-fronted Amazon Parrots


I want by a very long way ; it has to have something “ special ”

about it for me to want to possess it. However, at the beginning of the

war one could not look a gift horse in the mouth, so I gladly accepted

Richard. She is a pretty bird—at least, she has a very pretty head—

with a great deal of blue, and what yellow she has is under the chin.

She is small for a hen, and not a good shape, and her feathers have

rather a faded washed-out appearance. But then she is old, which

may account for want of colour. I should say she had been badly

treated in her youth, for even now, after nearly seven years, she will

never come on my hand, and is afraid of hands. She will get up on

my shoulder, but is uncertain in her temper, and will occasionally

turn round and give a pretty hard nip. She is terribly jealous of the

other birds, and I have to be careful not to pet any while she is out of

her cage, for if I do, she will fly right across the room, straight for my

head. She is a fair talker, and has learnt quite a good deal since she

came to me. I think if I had had her in her first youth she would have

been a charming bird, but her temper is too uncertain and at times she

screams in rather a persistent way, which is trying. She is never so

happy as when she is allowed to roam about a room, and she loves to

get under a piece of curtain, but she is the most destructive bird I have

and has to be watched all the time or she will have her beak into the

best chippendale chairs or leave a hole in the curtain.


My next Blue-front is Ena, a young cock bird that I bought as

a funny little fluffy brown baby in nestling plumage in January, 1920.

The youngest Parrot I have ever had, Ena was bought in a great hurry

to replace a sad and tragic loss, for I had had the most charming Yellow-

front, called Judy, who for months had been a bosom companion and had

lived incessantly on my bed, mostly under the eiderdown, for I was

ill at the time. But one morning, when my nurse was out of the room,

Judy took a flight and landed on the window ledge, where, before any¬

thing could be done, she picked up and ate a piece of broken glass.

Poor little Judy ! she simply bled to death, for it had cut the intestine

about the sixth of an inch, and apparently nothing could be done.

1 missed her so dreadfully that two days after her death we phoned to

Gamage to see if they had anything that would do to fill the gap.

However, they had nothing at the moment that would suit me, so



