THE BLUE MACAW 



flock descend with a rush, and proceed to strip it of its fruit. Quickly each bird 

 climbs out to the end of a branch and sets to work at cracking nuts, or devouring 

 softer fruit. When such a flock of araraunas is feasting, little is seen of the 

 birds themselves, but their presence is amply manifested by their incessant and 

 discordant cries and screams. If a shot be fired in the neighbourhood, the whole 

 flock rises immediately in a gold and azure cloud. Macaws of all kinds constantly 

 make raids on cultivated crops, where, unless promptly driven off, they do in- 

 calculable damage in a surprisingly short space of time, cocoa being one of the 

 crops to which they are specially partial. 



As is the case with all members of the parrot tribe, the union between the 

 sexes of the ararauna is very close : the two members of a pair are thorough 

 comrades, and live only for themselves and their offspring. At the pairing-season 

 each couple of the older birds resorts to the same spot, and often to the same 

 tree, as has served them previously as a breeding-place. For the nest a tall 

 tree is always selected, and a slit in the trunk or a hollow in one of the branches 

 is enlarged by means of the powerful beak until a cavity large enough to contain 

 the nest is excavated. In this chamber the female ararauna deposits a couple of 

 white eggs of nearly the same size as those of a domesticated hen, afterwards 

 incubating them with great assiduity, her long tail projecting all the time out 

 of the hole, and thus revealing the situation of the nest. 



Tame araraunas and other macaws are much esteemed by the Indians 

 of Brazil and other South American countries. These dwell on the properties 

 of their owners, and fly off to feed in the fields, just in the same manner as 

 domesticated pigeons in Europe. They form the ornaments of the Indian 

 poultry-yard. 



In captivity in Europe macaws thrive well, and can be taught to speak, 

 although they never turn out such good linguists as many other members of 

 the parrot tribe. 



