MILITARY MACAW. 
67 
some decayed patriarch of the forest, whose huge leafless branches 
seem to furnish them with convenient seats, or rather stands, for the 
ceremony that is to follow : here, amid the utmost noise and vociferation, 
they take their stand, facing the rising sun, and display their wings 
and tails to his genial beams; one might suppose the flock to be 
engaged in sun-worship; but no, they are merely drying their plumage 
damped by the heavy dews of night, and their loud conversation is 
probably nothing more than an expression of their delight at feeling 
once more dry and warm and comfortable; though, perhaps, they may 
also be deliberating whither they will proceed to breakfast: the 
plantation of so and so is very strictly guarded, the crops of some 
one else have already paid heavy toll, and so on: for when warmed and 
dried, the Macaws fly off in little parties in search of their favourite 
food, but meet again in the evening at their accustomed drinking 
place, and then retire in company to roost for the night. _ 
The hours of feeding, drinking, and reposing are mostly observed 
with the greatest regularity, so that a person who has watched their 
habits for a little time, will be able to predict, almost to a minute, 
their arrival at, or their withdrawal from, a given place which they 
are known to frequent. 
Supposing their toilet to be completed half an hour or so after 
sunrise, they continue feeding until about 10 a.m., when they fly to 
the watercourse they frequent to bathe and drink: by the time they 
have washed and dried themselves again, it is getting on towards noon, 
and the rays of the sun are descending on the land with almost 
fiercest power: the Macaws and many other species take shelter from 
the heat among the densest foliaged trees they can find, and there 
doze and digest, amid the profoundest stillness until the afternoon, 
when they pay a second visit to the water and to their feeding- 
grounds : having satisfied their appetite they retire to the dead tree 
where they met in the morning, as if to close the day as, apparently, 
they began it, by some act of homage to the orb of day, and their 
worship, if such it be, ended, they retire to their usual camping- 
ground. 
During the breeding season, however, the programme of the day is 
not quite strictly kept; a couple of young Macaws require a good deal 
of attention, and the parents have to forage far and wide for their 
support: whether it be the strict habit of this family to have but two 
young ones at a time, is somewhat doubtful; for it is certain that in 
captivity, when they do breed, they occasionally have three and four 
in a brood: we have known as many as seven in one nest, but in 
that instance they all died, seemingly from inability of the parents to 
