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Miss E. F. Chawner—The History of A 1



but be would not call, I suppose the reason being that be is in a ratber

heavy moult. I tbink tbe thick foliage confused the bird and be did

not seem to know bow to get down. I waited about three hours,

Precious making occasional flights but always answering my call and

each time alighting a little lower in tbe tree till finally be got on to a

branch where be bad a clear view, and be kept peering down, chattering

“Be a good boy, babee ” and then an emphatic 4 4 Don’t do it ”. I took

tbe other bird out of tbe cage and put him on my shoulder. Precious

never quite approves of that, and when I started to pet tbe other bird

it was too much for Master Jealousy in tbe tree and be promptly flew

down on to my bead, saying, “ Good boy.” Tbe rest was easy. I put

up my band and be came on to my finger and I put tbe other band

quietly over him and tbe next moment they were both safely in tbe

cage, Precious, I think, nearly as glad to be back as I was to have him.

He whistled bis tunes all tbe way back with great gusto, and I arrived

home a tired but very happy and triumphant woman. I was very

lucky getting him early before there were many people about to

scare him.



THE HISTORY OF A i


By Miss E. F. Chawner


A 1 is a small Amazon Parrot : bis Latin name, which no one ever

remembers to call him and which I believe be would contemptuously

repudiate, is Amazona xanthops. He and two even younger and barer

brethren came together in a box one chilly afternoon of that most chilly

and dismal summer, 1928, all very shivering and crying piteously.

Their poor little bodies were sparsely covered with fluff and their

immature wing feathers had been severely clipped, leaving a large

exposed patch of bare back. Their heads seemed unduly large, as they

were tolerably well feathered, and they kept nodding up and down

keeping time to the hoarse cries which greeted us when we unpacked

them. One was obviously not long for this cold world, the second

might live, and the third was sturdier and seemed promising.


I believe if I could have given them heat, by which I mean a steady



