MAGNIFICENT MACAWS 
dining-room tables, and tearing the menus to strips. The 
Brazilian waiters, in their desire to maintain their own 
anatomy intact, did not dare go near it; for the bird, 
even on hearing remarks made on its behaviour, would 
let itself down the sides of chairs and defiantly proceed 
to attack the maligners. 
Similar but larger and more beautiful than this macaw 
is the ararauna, extremely rare and perfectly black. The 
natives say that it is impossible to keep it in captivity, 
as it is quite untamable. I saw a couple of these birds. 
They were really magnificent — certainly three feet in 
length from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail. 
When the steamer was close enough to the banks or 
an island we occasionally saw small groups of assahy 
palms {Euterpe oleracea) twenty to thirty feet high, with 
smooth stems and feather-like foliage. Other palms, 
equally graceful, with stems like polished columns and 
delicately cut fronds aloft, were also to be seen; but 
otherwise most of the vegetation was entangled and 
untidy. 
From the trees hung liane in festoons or suspended 
like cords. Creepers of all kinds smothered the trunks 
and branches of the trees, which seemed to struggle for 
a little life and air; while, when we had an opportunity 
of examining the branches of the trees a little closer, we 
could see absolute swarms of parasites covering every 
bough. 
Near some of the houses could be seen the Musa 
paradisiaca the most common kind of banana palm in 
that region, with its green leaves, ten to twelve feet long, 
reflecting beautiful shades like silk velvet, when caressed 
by the wind. I saw one or two specimens of the bread¬ 
fruit tree, with its digitated foliage, and several kinds 
of pine-apple plants ( Bromelia) — some with leaves 
toothed along their edges, others shaped more like the 
blade of a long knife. 
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