112 YELLOW-NAPED AMAZON. 



us hope they do. But at any rate if Jacquot did not sing "Ho la' la' 

 Nicholas", or " J'ai du bon taboc", neither did he scream, and the 

 lack of the vice quite counterbalanced the lack of the accomplishment. 

 I think Dr. Buss says that the drawback to Amazons is that, however 

 accomplished they may become, they never quite give up their natural 

 screams, whereas the Grey Parrot does. But my experience does not 

 tally with his. I have had at least one Blue-fronted and one Double- 

 fronted, as well as Jacquot, which never screamed. And with regard 

 to Greys, though they may give up their natural scream, they almost 

 always have some disagreeable noise, either the squeak of a creaking 

 barrow or some loud shrill whistle, or even only the chirp of a Canary; 

 but rendered, as it were, through the microphone, if I am right in 

 supposing that the microphone is the instrument that makes the walk 

 of a fly sound like an elephant's tramp? So that the chances are 

 that a good Double-fronted or Tellow-naped Amazon will prove a 

 pleasanter companion than a Grey, take them all in all. In one respect 

 Jacquot was more like a Grey than an Amazon. The merit of an 

 Amazon is that he talks freely before strangers, as a rule, and a Grey 

 will not. But Jacquot would not talk before strangers, in England at 

 any rate. In Havre, as I have said, I was told he always kept a 

 crowd round the shop where he hung. He was a nervous bird, and 

 though he would come on your hand, was easily frightened. But my 

 experience of him leads me to say that a young Yellow-naped Amazon 

 is quite as desirable as a Double-fronted Amazon. 



They are about the same value— £2 10s. to £3 each. The food for 

 the Blue-fronted Amazon suits the Yellow-nape. I would not advise 

 any one to buy a bird of which the Yellow-nape had fully come, and 

 which was still wild. They would probably secure nothing but an 

 unbearable screamer. Of course a clever Yellow-nape, like a clever 

 Double-fronted, is worth a great deal more than £3. 



I have talked of Jacquot as "he", but I don't feel sure it was not 

 a hen. The fact is that owing to "perroquet" being masculine, and 

 "perruche" feminine, all French Parrots are "he", and all French 

 Parrakeets "she." I think it may have been a hen, because it struck 

 me that the Yellow-naped Amazon exhibited at the last Palace Show 

 had a much bluer head. Jacquot was of a more uniform green. 



