28 TlMEHRI. 
ally of a pure white breed. As under no circumstance do 
they eat fowls or their eggs, it was puzzling to account 
for this habit of keeping fowls apparently for no purpose, 
until it appeared that the real use of these birds is to 
provide the white downy feathers spoken of above. To 
supply the yellow feathers, Indians keep large quantities 
of green parrots and red macaws. In looking at Indian 
parrots, not intended for barter, one notices that many of 
them have exchanged much of their original green plumage 
for yellow. Some are only speckled with yellow, others 
have one or both wings entirely yellow, and others, 
though such cases are rare, are yellow all over. Yet 
these birds are of species which when in a state of na- 
ture have not a single yellow feather about them, or 
at most only a few on the crown of the head. The Red- 
man knows how to change the colour of the feathers of 
any individual bird from green to yellow. One 
Indian gave me the following quaint account of the pro- 
cess. Some of the natural feathers are pulled out, and 
the place from which they were torn is rubbed with 
faroah, the red dye procured from Bixa Oreldna with 
which the Indians paint their own bodies. The bird is 
also made to drink water in which more faroah has been 
steeped, after which it is left for some months. During 
this time the owner himself eats very sparingly, and chiefly 
of certain kinds of food. At the end of the time new 
yellow feathers have grown in the place of the abstracted 
green ones. Probably the pulling out of the original 
feathers, together with the great quantity of fish which 
these birds pick up and eat in their wanderings about the 
huts of their owners has something to do with the 
