322 BIRDS OF BRITISH GUIANA. 



their unpleasant and powerful calls. It is a very noisy bird and 

 always emitting its shrill voice. That is why the settlers and 

 natives have given it the name of Screecher. On the Waini River 

 he once observed an enormous flock settle on the trees on the 

 borders of that river. They bent the thinner branches downwards 

 with their weight, and the noise they made was ear-splitting. He 

 was surprised to see lots of the birds drinking the somewhat salt 

 water, as the distance from the coast was not very far. The flesh of 

 the young birds was very savoury — it was therefore much hunted 

 and sold to the settlers. It is very commonly kept in captivity. 

 During the breeding-season it lives in pairs, at which time it 

 appears to lose its voice. The nest is made in the holes of hollow 

 trees. Like all other Parrots it feeds its young with half- 

 digested food, which it brings up from its crop. The young- 

 are only fed twice a day — at 11 in the morning and 5 o'clock 

 in the afternoon. The natives used to fell the trees in which 

 the Parrots nested in order to secure the young. 



We quote the following note from Mr. Barringtou Brown 

 ((yanoe and Camp Life, p. 3*27) : — "Just before dusk immense 

 numbers of Parrots, of the kind called ' Screechers/ flew over us, 

 making for Parua Island, where they settled on low trees. They 

 appeared to be in a most excited condition, constantly screeching 

 and rising up in hundreds over the trees, where the}'^ hovered and 

 resettled at intervals, until night closed in and put a sto[) to their 

 flittings." 



Mr. C. A. Lloyd, writing on Guiana Parrots, remarks 

 (Timehri (2) ix.p. 27 I) : — " The 'Screecher" {CJirf/sotia ainazonica) 

 is one of the commonest Parrots occurring here. Of our native 

 Parrots the Amazon is undoubtedly the best talker." 



208. Amazona oclirocepliala. 



Yellow-headed Amazon. 



Psittacus ochrocephaliis Gmel. S3"st. Nat. i. p. 389, 1788 (Colombia) ; 



Cab. in Scliomb. lleis. Guian. iii. p. 724, 18-18. 

 Clirysotis oclirocepliala Salvin, Ibis, 1886, p. G9 CBartica Grove, 



Camacusa) ; Salvad. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xx. p. 289, 1891 ; Lloyd, 



Tiinehri (2) ix. p. 271, 1895. 

 Amazona oclirocepliala Beebe, Our Search for a Wilderness, ])p. 135, 146, 



1910 (Barima) ; Brabomnie & Chubb, B. S. Ainer. i. p. 89, no. 841, 



1912. 



" Common Screecher Parrot " {Quelch) ; " Yellow-fronted 

 Amazon Parrot" [Beehe). 



