106 DOUBLE-FRONTED AMAZON. 



in his excellent Handbook, remarks: "Of all Parrots found in this 

 region the one under consideration learns to speak the most readily 

 and distinctly"; and this appears to be the general verdict with Le 

 Vaillant's Amazon, which English dealers commonly speak of as the 

 Double-fronted; why, it would be rather difficult to say, seeing that 

 the face of the bird is all of one colour, namely, a pale yellow; the 

 shoulders are red, and the rest of the body green, darker above, and 

 of a lighter shade on the under surface. 



The Hon. and Rev. F. G. Dutton 1 s account of the 

 Le Vaillanfs Amazon (Chrysotis Le Vaillanti). 



According to my experience, the cleverest and most accomplished 

 birds are found in this family, though their powers of talking vary a 

 good deal with individuals. I have had three, varying from one, quite 

 the cleverest and most charming Parrot I ever had, to another which 

 was quite as distinguished for its want of cleverness and amiability. 



My clever one I bought in Brest, from an old couple. I suppose 

 the man had been a sailor: the home appears to have been a place 

 where strength rather than choiceness of language was the rule. It 

 would have been impossible for me to have kept the bird, had it not 

 been French. Its language was enough to make one's hair stand on 

 end. But it sang several songs, did the soldiers' exercises, and had 

 many other phrases, all of which it repeated whenever I wished it. I 

 imagine it would always have done so for the person who fed it; 

 otherwise it would not talk for all the world. It would always talk 

 for any labourer or any man with a gruff voice, be he French or 

 English, and swear too. It laughed with as vulgar a laugh as one 

 can well conceive. I gave one hundred francs for it, but it was well 

 worth three hundred. I suppose its talent was too much for it, for 

 it died about two years or so after I bought it, of cancer on the 

 brain. 



Before this I had been very much taken with one I had seen in 

 some lodgings in London, and so procured one for myself from Liver- 

 pool. I bought it quite young, and it only proved a moderate talker 

 while I had it. I ought to have said that my French one was abso^- 

 lutely good-tempered: I could do anything with it. I had to .hold it 

 while it underwent a cruel operation in the hope of cure. Of course 

 during the operation I held it in a towel. But the moment it was 

 over, it had not the least resentment. 



The Liverpool one was not so good-tempered, but I do not know 

 that I kept it long enough to try. I doubt if I was patient enough: 



