68 
MILITARY MACAW. 
attend to all their wants, for, although they were well supplied with 
food as a rule, once or twice they did not get exactly what they liked, 
and when the male, for he is the chief feeder, was relieved of his 
cares, by the death of the last of the septenniad, he was quite worn 
by his labours, and scarce looked half his usual size, he was so weak 
and thin. 
“The Macaws”, wrote Bechstein, more than a hundred years ago, 
“are very dear, and are only found in the possession of rich bird- 
fanciers. Their beautiful plumage forms their principal attraction. In 
the centre of Germany one costs from fifty to one hundred rix dollars, 
and in the maritime cities, thirty to forty. They learn to repeat many 
words, to go and come, and also to obey the least signal from their 
master: they imitate perfectly the bleating of sheep, the mewing of 
cats, and the barking of dogs: their custom of drinking only in the 
evening seems very extraordinary/'’ 
Macaws still maintain their price, as we have seen from the sum 
quoted, as the cost of acquiring one of them, by Dr. Russ: we have seen 
them drinking in the morning, and at midday as freely as in the evening, 
so that the habit alluded to by Bechstein must have been peculiar to 
the individual bird he had under observation when he wrote. 
It appears to us that the Military Macaw, if not quite as good a 
speaker as his Hyacinthine relative, is nevertheless a capable and 
intelligent bird: and we should like to try and breed him, if only we 
had a suitable place in which to try the experiment, and we think it 
would not be difficult with a pair of very tame and healthy birds; 
but the age of the male would not be of much consequence, as they 
are of an exceedingly amorous temperament, and retain the fire and 
passion of youth to quite a considerable age : in the case of the female, 
however, it is desirable to secure a youthful specimen, as the drain 
on the system, consequent upon the elaboration of her eggs, would 
be probably too much for an aged female, who would be almost certain 
to become egg-bound, or perish in convulsions, as we have unfortunately 
witnessed more than once. 
Given a young female of this, or any other species of Macaw, and 
a male of any age, provide them with a suitable habitation and 
appropriate nesting furniture, and we have no doubt they would breed 
as freely as a pair of Budgerigars or Cockatiels. 
We once saw a Red and Yellow male Macaw pair with a female of 
the Yellow and Blue variety, and we have no doubt that the progeny, 
had any resulted, would have been capable of reproduction, but the 
poor birds were, each, chained to a stand, and we do not remember 
that any eggs were laid; or, if so, they certainly were not incubated. 
