In The Description In A Former Chapter Of Our Old Peach Trees In Their
Blossoming Time I Mentioned The Paroquets Which Occasionally Visited
Us But Had Their Breeding-Place Some Distance Away.
This bird was one
of the two common parrots of the district, the other larger species
being the Patagonian parrot, _Conarus patagonus_, the _Loro
barranquero_ or Cliff Parrot of the natives.
In my early years this
bird was common on the treeless pampas extending for hundreds of miles
south of Buenos Ayres as well as in Patagonia, and bred in holes it
excavated in cliffs and steep banks at the side of lakes and rivers.
These breeding-sites were far south of my home, and I did not visit
them until my boyhood's days were over.
In winter these birds had a partial migration to the north: at that
season we were visited by flocks, and as a child it was a joy to me
when the resounding screams of the travelling parrots, heard in the
silence long before the birds became visible in the sky, announced
their approach. Then, when they appeared flying at a moderate height,
how strange and beautiful they looked, with long pointed wings and
long graduated tails, in their sombre green plumage touched with
yellow, blue, and crimson colour! How I longed for a nearer
acquaintance with these winter visitors and hoped they would settle on
our trees! Sometimes they did settle to rest, perhaps to spend half a
day or longer in the plantation; and sometimes, to my great happiness,
a flock would elect to remain with us for whole days and weeks,
feeding on the surrounding plain, coming at intervals to the trees
during the day, and at night to roost.
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