recovering her pet. The next
morning our attention was attracted by the most extraordinary noises,
arising from a flock of parrots at a little distance. Now all was
hushed; then again there broke forth a torrent of screams, which
reminded us of the noise made by a flock of crows gathered around a
solitary owl found out of its ivy-mantled tower after sunrise. What was
the cause of the noise? No one could decide. Arthur suggested that the
tree-tops thereabout might form a parliament-house to the surrounding
nation of parrots, and that, their session having commenced, they had
met to discuss some new legislative act for the good of the community,
or, perhaps, some point calculated to lead to a general war,--the
overbearing conduct of the macaws, or the increasing insults of the
parakeets.

With bows and blowpipes in hand, Arthur, Tim, and I, and the three
Indians, crept silently towards them, when, to our great astonishment,
we discovered the cause of the hubbub. Mounted full in view on a
treetop stood Master Ara; while around him, upon adjacent branches, were
collected a host of his peers! There was a pause.

"Haul away! ye ho, boys!" came down from the top of the tree, followed
by bursts of imitative shrieks and vociferous applause. "Ha! ha! ha!"
shouted Master Ara, as he rolled his head and doubled up his body quite
beside himself with laughter. Then came tumultuous applause and
encores, and further shouts of "Ha! ha! ha! Haul away! ye ho, boys!"
Then Ara spread his wings, and began with evident delight to bow and
dance, and to turn round and round on the bough he had chosen for his
rostrum. The effect upon his auditory was remarkable. Every parrot
began to twist and to turn about in the same fashion, endeavouring with
very considerable success to utter the same sounds, till we might have
supposed that the crew of a merchant ship were shouting together, and
engaged in weighing anchor to put to sea. Presently one of the assembly
caught sight of us, and giving the alarm to the others, they suddenly
changed their hilarious notes to cries of alarm, when off they flew,
leaving Ara to harangue to empty benches, or rather to vacant boughs;
for he, not holding us in dread, did not deem it necessary to decamp.

The question now was how to catch him. Kallolo's blowpipe could have
brought him down from his lofty perch; but it would have been at the
risk of preparing him for parrot-pie, and our object was to take h