212 ,^ ObservMioJis on the Hyacintfiine Maccaw, 



quoting Dr. Latham^s synonyme, and preserving it in the Eng- 

 lish name. Subsequently, the bird was fully characterised, 

 with an interesting account of its habits, under the name of 

 Guacamayo azul, by another observer of the close of the last 

 century, M. d'Azara ; in the French translation of whose 

 work, M. Sonnini added a note pointing out the resemblance 

 between D'Azara's bird and that of Dr. Latham. In the 

 second edition of the Nouveatt Dictionnaire d'Histoire NatUr- 

 relle, M. Vieillot considered the former as a distinct species, 

 and named it Macrocercus glaiicus; but in his Galerie des 

 Oiseaux he corrected this error, and united the two birds 

 under the name of Macrocercus hyacinthinus, which the spe- 

 cies now bears. In his Conspectus 'Psittacorum, published in 

 1820, M. Kuhl quotes to the Psittacus hyacinthinus of La- 

 tham no other synonyme but that of Shaw. 



This species is figured in M. Spix's work as the Anodo- 

 rhynchus Maximilian?, but, as far as I have been able to dis- 

 cover, entirely without description. A second bird, differing 

 from it not only in its comparatively diminutive size, but 

 also in having its cheeks bare, as in the typical maccaws, 

 although not quite to the same extent, is figured and described 

 by the same author as the Ar^dra hyacinthinus. To the 

 latter, M. Spix refers the Guacamayo bleu (azul) of D'Azara, 

 and states that it has been improperly confounded by Son- 

 nini and Dr. Latham with the Anodorhynchus Maximilian* 

 August/. That the Ardra hyacinthinus of Spix is not Dr. La- 

 tham's Psittacus hyacinthinus is clear from the characters 

 given of the latter, which is described to have its chin and 

 orbits only naked, in opposition to the other maccaws, which 

 are characterised as having naked cheeks. The identity of 

 Shaw's bird with that of Dr. Latham is proved by its being 

 figured, with the same characters, and from the same mu- 

 seum, at a time when the specimen was said to be " perhaps 

 the only one known to exist at present in Europe." A com- 

 parison of the characters given by D'Azara with those of Dr. 

 Latham and Dr. Shaw, and with the figure of the latter, will 

 at once remove any doubt of the fact that the Guacamayo 

 azul is the same bird ; and its size and feathered cheeks im- 

 mediately distinguish the latter from the Arara hyacinthinus 

 of Spix. In fact, the Psittacus hyacinthinus of Dr. Latham, 

 the P. augustus of Shaw, the Guacamayo azul of D'Azara, 

 the Macrocercus glaucus of Vieillot, the M. hyacinthinus of 

 the same author, and the Anodorh^^nchus Maximilian/ of 

 Spix, are one and the same species. The Ardra hyacinthinus 

 is totally distinct, but forms, by its near approach in colour- 

 ing, and by the smaller extent of its naked cheeks, an evident 

 link between the hyacinthine and the common maccaws. 



