Chap. II. 
MARACANA PARROT. 
103' 
poor fellows seemed to fare very badly. Captain An- 
tonio treated all his Indians like slaves ; paying them 
no wages and stinting them to scanty rations of salt fish 
and farinha. There was an air of poverty and misery 
over the whole establishment, which produced a very 
disagreeable impression : these are certainly not the 
people to develope the resources of a fine country like 
this. 
On recrossing the river to Aveyros in the evening, a 
pretty little parrot fell from a great height headlong into 
the water near the boat ; having dropped from a flock 
which seemed to be fighting in the air. One of the In- 
dians secured it for me, and I was surprised to find the 
bird uninjured. There had probably been a quarrel 
about mates, resulting in our little stranger being tem- 
porarily stunned by a blow on the head from the beak 
of a jealous comrade. The species was the Conurus 
guianensis, called by the natives Maracana ; the plumage 
green, with a patch of scarlet under the wings. I 
wished to keep the bird alive and tame it, but all our 
efforts to reconcile it to captivity were vain ; it refused* 
food, bit every one who went near it, and damaged its 
plumage in its exertions to free itself My friends in 
Aveyros said that this kind of parrot never became do- 
mesticated. After trying nearly a week I was recom- 
mended to lend the intractable creature to an old 
Indian woman, living in the village, who was said to 
be a skilful bird-tamer. In two days she brought it 
back almost as tame as the familiar love-birds of our 
aviaries. I kept my little pet for upwards of two 
years ; it learned to talk pretty well, and was con- 
