Page:The animal story book.djvu/129

 ranna, otherwise called the blue macaw, produces young at Caen?'

'No, Michel, it does not say that here.'

'What a dictionary! Just wait till I fetch you mine and you will see.'

Michel returned in a few minutes with his book of Natural History.

'You will soon see, sir,' he said, opening his dictionary in his turn. 'Parrot—here it is—parrots are monogamous.'

'As you know Latin, Michel, of course you know what monogamous means.'

'That means that they can sing scales—gamut, I suppose?'

'Well, no, Michel, not exactly. It means that they have only one "wife."'

'Indeed, sir? That is because they talk like us most likely. Now, I have found the place: "It was long believed that parrots were incapable of breeding in Europe, but the contrary has been proved on a pair of blue macaws which lived at Caen. M. Lamouroux furnishes the details of these results." '

'Let us hear the details which M. Lamouroux furnishes.'

'"These macaws, from March 1818 until August 1822, including a period of four years and a half, laid, in all, sixty-two eggs." '

'Michel, I never said they did not lay eggs; what I said was—'

'"Out of this number,"' continued Michel in a loud voice, '"twenty-five young macaws were hatched, of which only ten died. The others lived and continued perfectly healthy."'

'Michel, I confess to having entertained false ideas on the subject of macaws.'

'"They laid at all seasons of the year,"' continued Michel, '"and more eggs were hatched in the latter than in the former years."'