FESTIVE AMAZON PARROT. 95 



Selby declares that "It is docile, and easily tamed, and, being of 

 an imitative disposition, readily learns to pronounce words- and sentences 

 with great clearness and precision", which, is not at all our experience 

 with the species. 



On the other hand, as all these birds differ considerably in capacity 

 and disposition, it is quite likely that an odd specimen, now and again, 

 may be met with that has learned to speak as well and as clearly, as 

 the rest of its compatriots are backward in this respect. 



Among the palm groves of its native land, the Amazon feeds luxu- 

 riously on fruit, but in captivity is content with a more meagre fare 

 of seed — seeds of various kinds, such as hemp, for which it always shows 

 a predilection, canary seed, maize, and nuts of every description, from 

 the cob-nut of our hedgerows, to the cocoa-nut of its native land; nor 

 does it despise such humble fare as monkey-nuts, and in carrots and 

 beet seems to find a substitute for the oranges and bananas of the 

 tropics. 



These birds soon become very tame and domesticated, and if their 

 owner resides in the country, may be permitted to wander at will 

 about the grounds, whence they will return to the house for their 

 food: it is as well, however, not to permit them to ramble far when 

 there is ripe fruit to be picked up in the neighbourhood, as their 

 frugivorous propensities are apt under such circumstances to exert 

 themselves with a degree of intensity that cannot fail to prove injurious 

 to the gardener: at other times they may have full liberty, which we 

 have never known them abuse by straying away altogether from their 

 home. 



It is curious that a pair of these birds will sometimes converse with 

 each other in their acquired language, but such is nevertheless the 

 fact. Some years ago a friend of ours had a pair of Amazons, though 

 we cannot now say to what particular species they belonged, that used 

 to talk to each other in Portuguese, which they had no doubt learned 

 before their importation into this country. The effect was decidedly 

 peculiar, sitting one in a pear-tree in the garden, and the other in a 

 clump of hawthorn near the dining-room window, they regularly answered 

 each other, and occasionally sang and laughed aloud, so that they were 

 often taken for human beings by persons who had not seen them, and 

 only heard the sound of their voices in the garden. What they were 

 talking about, we regret we cannot say, as we are not acquainted with 

 the language in which their conversation was carried on. 



