42 CHOCOLLITOS. Book I. 
jar filled with drinking water, who, according to his humble 
station in this domestic hierarchy, was clad in a straw hat 
and a shirt reaching from his neck down to his waist We 
kept a number of the little parrots called chocollitos in 
our court. At one time we had twenty of them. As soon 
as we sat down to our meal they would assemble to 
receive the sweets we threw to them, and would fight 
clamorously for the largest piece. These chocollitos are 
very beautiful and amusing little birds, which become tame 
almost instantaneously, and readily attach themselves to 
man, as they are in general of an amiable disposition. This 
temperament was shown in a touching manner by a sad 
catastrophe that carried away one of the little creatures. 
Most of them were young ones, and had not yet formed 
their alliances, which they generally keep with the strictest 
monogamic fidelity. There was, however, one male 
amongst them unconscientious enough to disturb the matri- 
monial peace of a united couple by seducing the mate 
of a fellow-parrot. When the latter understood the whole 
extent of his misfortune, and after he had made the last 
unsuccessful attempts to bring his faithless companion 
back to the path of duty, the unhappy creature, heart- 
broken by his wrongs, took his lonely seat on the perch on 
which he had passed happier nights closely pressed to the 
side of his partner, — refused to eat and drink, and one 
morning was found dead on the floor below. 
By another startling event the number of our little 
chocollitos was diminished. We kept a tame deer in our 
courtyard, which suddenly became transformed into a 
carnivorous beast. There is no doubt that this animal had 
been demoralised by the society of man. At our dinner- 
table it first learned to eat meat, — thoroughly cooked, it is 
true — but whether its nature was more and more perverted 
