BED AND BLUE MAG AW. 73 



this old savage never abated one atom of his hatred for every one 

 that went near him, and he had ultimately to be poisoned." 



We can heartily endorse the following recommendation by the same 

 author: — "Never keep a Macaw in a cage, because, if you do, his 

 gorgeous tail will assuredly be spoiled, and the soiled condition of the 

 cage will inevitably become a nuisance, no matter how great may be 

 the attention bestowed upon its frequent cleansing.'' 7 



If the owner has not an aviary of sufficient extent and strength to 

 permit of his placing his Macaw in it, and the bird itself is not suf- 

 ficiently tame to admit of allowing it its freedom, he had better have 

 it fastened by one leg to a stand, by means of a light steel chain: 

 the latter should be attached by means of a ring of sufficient size to 

 admit of its sliding freely up and down to an upright of some strong 

 wood, at the upper extremity of which should be placed a cross bar, 

 the whole taking the shape of the capital letter T; the seed and water 

 tins should be placed at either end of the horizontal bar, and if a 

 well-sanded tray be placed at the bottom of the upright, very little 

 dirt will be made, and the bird be kept in a clean and comfortable 

 condition. 



A Macaw thus kept soon becomes very tame, and rarely attempts 

 to bite: as some of these birds, however, are treacherous in their 

 conduct towards children, whom too many have reason to consider 

 their natural enemies, it is as well to caution the young folk against 

 approaching them too nearly. 



We have seen tame Macaws as quiet and gentle as any bird can 

 possibly be, and so far from being noisy their voice was very seldom 

 heard, and when utterance was occasionally given to a squeak, rather 

 than a shriek, the note was far from being as shrill and disagreeable 

 as that of the Rosy Cockatoo, for instance, or even the Alexandrine 

 Parrakeet; but no reliable inferences can be drawn from the disposition 

 of individual birds, for they vary in temper, not to say character, as 

 much as men do. 



The extreme beauty of a flight of these grand birds is well described 

 in the following extract from Anson's Voyage, page 218: writing of a 

 waterfall in the Island of Quibo, he says, "While we were observing 

 it, there came in sight a prodigious flight of Macaws: which hovering 

 over the spot, and 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 cannot refrain 

 from a kind of transport, when they recount the complicated beauties 

 which occurred in this extraordinary waterfall." 



It is curious that Latham, when writing of this bird, should fall 

 II. a 



