Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/253

 lS5i.] TAME PARROTS. 221

and sometimes with sunshine, and often obliged to make a supper of farinha and water, on account of there being no land on which to make a fire ; but to all these inconveniences I was by this time well inured, and thought nothing of what, a year before, was a very great hardship. At the different sitios where I called, I often received orders for Barra ; for everybody whom I had once seen was, on a second encounter, an old friend, and would take a friend's privilege. One requested me to bring him a pot of turtle oil, — another, a garafao of wine ; the Delegarde wanted a couple of cats, and his clerk a couple of ivory small-tooth combs ; another required gimlets, and another, again, a guitar. For all these articles I received not a vintem of payment, but was promised the money certain on my return, or an equivalent in coffee or tobacco, or some other article current in the Rio Negro. To many persons, with whom I had never spoken, I was nevertheless well known, and addressed by name ; and these would often hint that such and such an article they were much in want of, and, without directly requesting me to get it for them, would intimate that if I should bring it, they would be happy to purchase it of me. The only live animals I had with me were a couple of parrots, which were a never-failing source of amusement. One was a little " Marianna," or Macaf of the Indians, a small black- headed, white-breasted, orange-neck and thighed parrot ; the other, an Anaca, a most beautiful bird, banded on the breast and belly with blue and red, and the back of the neck and head covered with long bright red feathers margined with blue, which it would elevate when angry, forming a hand- some crest somewhat similar to that of the harpy eagle ; its ornithological name is Derotypus accipitrinus, the hawk-headed parrot. There was a remarkable difference in the characters of these birds. The Anaca was of a rather solemn, morose, and irritable disposition ; while the Marianna was a lively little creature, inquisitive as a monkey, and playful as a kitten. It was never quiet, running over the whole canoe, climbing into every crack and cranny, diving into all the baskets, pans, and pots it could discover, and tasting everything they contained. It was a most omnivorous feeder, eating rice, farinha, every kind of fruit, fish, meat, and vegetable, and drinking coffee too as well as myself; and as soon as it saw me with basin in hand, would climb up to the edge, and not be quiet without having a share,