on the Bahama Amazon Parrot.



241



received their meal of bread, potato, or banana after which they

would retire to the garden and patiently await their next meal.


This was their only food and on it they seemed to thrive.

When spring came round and the sapodillas began to open they

betook themselves to the sapodilla tree and wrought untold

havoc amongst the fruit, throwing down what they had no use

for. They were a pair and would probably have bred and seen

their children’s children still on that same tree (for they are by

nature most stay at home and lazy) but their free career was

suddenly cut short and they were transported many miles to

their present home near Cambridge.


They stood the journey well and have never had a day’s

illness ; during the winter they are kept indoors in separate

cages, but in summer time they are turned into an open aviary

in the hopes that they may be induced to breed, but so far

without success.


They are very noisy, especially during the summer, sunrise

aud sunset being their most noisy periods, but unfortunately

they are not over particular and may be heard within a quarter

of a mile radius during any of the hours of daylight. They are

not great talkers, although if time and trouble were devoted to

them they might prove fairly good pupils, as they most easily

pick up sounds, especially whistles, sneezing, etc., while their

great tour de force is an imitation of a hen being caught and

having its neck wrung, a common sound in the Bahamas, where

poultry is always bought alive and killed just before it is required

for the pot. I am glad to say that they are now wearying of this

imitation, but for many months after my return to England I

felt like a murderer pursued by the dying shrieks of his victim.



