THE MACAW

Southland Times, Issue 23828, 27 May 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE MACAW

The macaws are the largest of the parrots and are among the most brightly coloured of all birds. They have their home in Central and South America where they live in flocks, and sleep and nest in the dense forests. During the early part of the day they fly in large companies to their feeding grounds, which may be in the forests in which they sleep or in more open country. Their food consists of fruit, nuts and grain. The loud, harsh scream of the macaw is well known to everyone who has visited the parrot house at a zoo, and a flock of these birds makes a deafening clamour. All the macaws nest in holes in trees, and as the holes selected for this purpose are often hardly large enough to admit the bird’s body, the long tail gets sadly broken and rubbed during the nesting season, so that by the time the young are old enough to leave the nest their parents look very bedraggled., The blue and yellow macaw is a very attractive looking bird. The whole of the upper part

of the body is deep blue and the breast is yellow. There is a large patch of naked skin round the eye which is surrounded by a black band. The crown of the head is green. Macaws make very interesting pets and soon become very tame but they are not good at learning to talk, and never lose their unpleasant habit of screaming. Ember Days Ember Days are days set apart for fasting and prayer in the English and Roman churches, at the periods appointed for ordination—the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the first Sunday in Lent, the same days after Whit Sunday and after the festival of the Holy Cross in September, and after St Lucia’s Day in December. The winter falls, the frozen rut Is bound with silver bars; The snowdrift heaps against the hut, And night is pierced with stars. -COVENTRY PATMORE.