PARROT. 103 



food, though not always Avith impunity, for they are said sometimes 

 to feed on the Manchineel apple in defect of other fruits, which ren- 

 ders their flesh very injurious, if not poisonous. Maccaws make their 

 nests in decayed trees, enlarging the holes with their bills if not suf- 

 ficiently capacious, lining the inside with feathers. The female lays 

 two eggs, the size of those of the Pigeon, and spotted as in the 

 Partridge;* breeds twice in the year. The male and female sit by 

 turns on the nest, as well as nurse and feed the young birds ; observed 

 to build from year to year on the same tree ; when brought up young, 

 they are easily tamed, but the old birds are quite indocile. In the 

 wild state their voice is rough and disagreeable, but may be taught 

 many words, if attended to when young, and even then at intervals 

 squall very much. This species is subject to fits when in confine- 

 ment, yet on the whole is a long-lived bird; is known in America by 

 the name of Gonzalo. This, and the blue and yellow species, are 

 said to frequent the Sopucaya tree,t for the sake of its eatable kernels. 

 I observe a slight variety, in which the pale part of the bill is 

 yellow, not white ; all the wing coverts, except a small part of the 

 lesser ones next the bend of the wing yellow, with three or four spots 

 of green ; the rest of the wing blue ; in another, the lesser wing 

 coverts are crimson, below them a streak of green ; the rest of the 

 wing and outer tail feathers blue ; the bare space round the eye very 

 pale blue. 



" often wheeling, and playing on the wing about it, afforded a most brilliant appearance, by 

 " the glittering of the sun on their variegated plumage : so that some of the spectators can- 

 " not refrain from a kind of transport, when they recount the complicated beauties which 

 " occurred in this extraordinary water-fall." Anson's Voy. p. 218. 



* We are informed by a gentleman who kept a tame female Maccaw for many years, 

 that it laid several eggs, entirely white, rather larger than those of a Pigeon, longer, and 

 more tapering to the small end. f Lecythis ollaria. Lin. 



