Tame araraunas and other macaws are much esteemed by the Indians of Brazil and other South American countries. These dwell on the properties of their owners, and fly off to feed in the fields, just in the same manner as domesticated pigeons in Europe. They form the ornaments of the Indian poultry-yard. In captivity in Europe macaws thrive well, and can be taught to speak, although they never turn out such good linguists as many other members of the parrot tribe. THE MANDARIN DUCK (_Æx galerita_) The male of the mandarin duck--the mandarin drake, as it should properly be called--looks so essentially Chinese that one would almost intuitively guess that it came from China. Nevertheless, it has a near relative, and the only other member of the same genus, in North America, where it is represented by the summer duck (_Æx sponsa_). In this distribution these painted ducks, as they have not inaptly been called, resemble several other groups of animals, such as the true alligators (_Alligator_) and the spoonbeaked sturgeons (_Polyodon_ and _Psephurus_), each of which has one North American and one Chinese species, although the American and Asiatic spoonbeaked sturgeons are referred to separate genera. Ducks, it may be mentioned, are divided into two distinct sections--namely, the swimming ducks and the diving ducks; the mandarin duck and its American relative belonging to the former section, of which they form a special group, characterised by the ornate plumage of the drakes, and particularly by the broad ornamental feathers on the shoulders and the elongated plumes on the head, which form a kind of helmet, with a large flange extending backwards over the neck. The mandarin drake is specially distinguished from the male of the summer duck by possessing a ruff on the neck formed of elongated, narrow, chestnut feathers streaked with whitish, and a chestnut and black “fan” rising up in a kind of tiger’s-claw shape on each side of the hind end of the body, and mainly formed by the broad innermost secondary feather of the wing; the helmet being copper-coloured, purple, and green, and separated by a broad white band enclosing the eye from the chestnut throat-ruff, while the beak is reddish brown. The other details of colour and pattern are sufficiently apparent in the illustration. This gorgeous breeding-livery is, however, worn only during a portion of the year. For four months--namely, from June till September--the mandarin drake is a very ordinary-looking bird, clothed in a greyish dress, which in autumn gives place, by a second moult, to the breeding-livery, the latter lasting till the following summer. When the drake is in the non-breeding plumage, it is mainly distinguishable from the duck by its somewhat superior size. The colour of the female is chiefly grey, relieved with brown and white.