. Bird notes . The Amazon Rail. {Photo by W. Short* Baily). Its prominent ruby eye makes it .look as if it ^night be danger-ous. So far there is in the aviary only a pair of St. ThomasConurcs. One day when I was trying to get a photo toillustrate these notes, the hen Conure, which is also fingertame Hew down to see what I Avas doing. In an instant theRail was at Jicr, but before I could intervene the little Parrothad gone for it literally tooth and nail, and screaming hor-ribly. I never saw, a more astonished Rail. When she had 112 The Amazon Rail. done with him, she climbed on; to my shoulder
. Bird notes . The Amazon Rail. {Photo by W. Short* Baily). Its prominent ruby eye makes it .look as if it ^night be danger-ous. So far there is in the aviary only a pair of St. ThomasConurcs. One day when I was trying to get a photo toillustrate these notes, the hen Conure, which is also fingertame Hew down to see what I Avas doing. In an instant theRail was at Jicr, but before I could intervene the little Parrothad gone for it literally tooth and nail, and screaming hor-ribly. I never saw, a more astonished Rail. When she had 112 The Amazon Rail. done with him, she climbed on; to my shoulder, and shouted(she speaks rather nicely) Come on, come on, comeon, but needless to say the Rail was not inclined torespond; he seemed to think that the far end of his pondwas quite the best place, while little demons of Parrots were. The Aniiizon Rai {Photo by W. Shore- Bai/y). about. Had it been a Finch or similar bird, I have nodoubt but that the Rail would have killed it. I once kept theso-called Grey-headed and Blue Rails (P. pniioccphaliis andP. porphyria) and found them particularly murderous withsmall birds. They would take their unfortunate v^ictims intheir claws and literally tear them limb from limb. They wereperfect Huns, in fact. Still they are very handsome birdsand I have often wondered why no attempts have been made The Amazon Rail. 113 to acclimatize them. If they were turned out on a sufficientlylarge; piece of water, where there were enough Waterfowl tokeep a space unfrozen in hard weather, they ought to do verywell, and a flock of 40 or 50 would look very handsome. The
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