96 S. Porter—A West Indian Diary


A WEST INDIAN DIARY


By S. Porter

{Concluded from p. 82)


Our next place of call was an obscure little port, and as soon as

tbe native traders came on board offering their fruit, I hailed a canoe

and was taken over to the mainland, where I endeavoured to find

a drug store. Fortunately there was one, where I purchased a small

rubber syringe. As not many white people seem to have reared

“ Amazons 55 from the nest, a few notes on the rearing of these birds

may be of interest. I had eight young birds in all and, with the

exception of one which died through the excessive heat when in

Haiti, I reared all of them. I discarded the bone end of the syringe

and used only the rubber ball with a short narrow neck. This proved

an excellent way of feeding the birds and from then onwards they

were no trouble. At first they lost a little weight, but soon picked

up again. Later on I mixed a teaspoonful of Mellin’s Food with the

ordinary food mixture, but I doubt whether this really suited them.

The birds were fed four or five times a day. The two species of

Parrots were kept together and the difference in the plumage was

very apparent. The green of the “ Yellow-bill ” is a bright shining

golden green, while that of the “ Black-bill ” is a rich, glossy

laurel green.


Parrots which are hand-reared make delightful pets, especially

the “ Amazons These birds are quite devoid of fear of human beings,

yet so deeply rooted is their instinctive fear of snakes and other

creeping animals that they are terrified of any animate object

resembling these creatures. One can watch their characters and

idiosyncrasies develop like those of a child. True, most of the

“ Amazons ” which are seen in this country are hand-reared, but by

natives ; there is a great difference between a bird reared by a

native and that reared by a white person. As mentioned before, one

thing very noticeable in young “ Amazons ” is the care given to the

plumage, and as soon as they can stand on their feet they are most

assiduous in their preening.


I know of no difference between the sexes in the plumage, except



