176 
POPULAR HISTOEY OF BIRDS. 
^^Arara/^ The various species are brilliantly coloured : one 
is entirely of a hyacinthine blue; another, common in our 
aviaries, is blue and yellow ; and a third is red and yellow. 
These birds 
" Make our cMldren open ear and eye, 
Gaze on their feathers, wonder at their talk, 
And think 'tis almost time for Poll to walk." 
The Indians on the Eio Negro are very fond of a head- 
dress made of feathers from the shoulders of the Red Macaw ; 
and attached to this are occasionally some of the large, 
snowy-white, loose, downy feathers from the under tail-co- 
verts of the Harpy. Mr. Wallace"^ says that the Indians 
occasionally keep these noble birds in great open houses or 
cages, feeding them with fowls, solely for the sake of these 
feathers, which are highly prized, not only from their being 
almost equal in beauty to a plume of white ostrich-feathers, 
but from the birds themselves being rare. Such ornaments 
are accordingly highly prized, and are not often met with. 
However amiable and petted Cockatoos may be, isolated 
or in captivity, when at large and in flocks in their own 
land they prove very destructive, not only from their feeding 
upon the produce of the farmer, but from their seemingly 
* Wallace, 'Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro,' p. 295. 
