190 THE SPEAKING PARROTS. 



with F. Thieme, the dealer, in Waltersliausen, and describes it 

 as unusually teachable and talkative : " It at once learnt to 

 repeat everything, called all the children in the house by name, 

 was patient, obedient, lively, and distinguished greatly above 

 the Blue and Eed Macaws. It is also more expensive than they, 

 and is considered a greater rarity." It is sometimes seen in the 

 bird shops and at shows ; the principal zoological gardens have 

 it, and there it proves very hardy, for in Frankfort-on-the-Maine 

 a Military Macaw has lived for nearly fifteen 3^ears. One sits 

 unchained on a stand in the Gardens at Hamburg, and never 

 attempts to fly away. The Military Macaw appears in extra- 

 ordinarily varied sizes in the shops of the wholesale dealers, and 

 hence it has occurred to men of science to divide it into two 

 varieties. This, however, is of no importance to the amateur, 

 for he can buy a large or small Military Macaw according to his 

 fancy. 



CHAP. LXXIV.— THE EED AND BLUE MACAW. 



Psittacus macao, L. 



Red and Bine Macaw (Ger., Arakanga, lidlhrother Arara, schar- 

 lachrother Arara, grosser gelhflugeliger Arara, Mahao ; Fr., Ara 

 rouge, Ara Macao ; Dut., Groote Geelvleugel Ara) — Anciently 

 known — Destructiveness — Description — Domestic Character. 



This species was described by Gessner in 1557, and by Aldro- 

 vandi in 1599, and is amongst the best known, both with regard 

 to its habits in freedom and its life in captivity. Alexander 

 von Humboldt, Schomburgk, and Arthur Schott may be named 

 among travellers who have observed it. According to them all the 

 general facts descriptive of the life of the macaw in freedom apply 

 especially to this species. The settlers shoot these macaws with- 

 out mercy, on account of the damage they do to the maize and 

 other crops ; the natives pursue them unceasingly for the sake 

 of their brilliant plumage, but their flesh is of little value. A 

 tree in which the nest is built passes among the Indians as an 

 inheritance from father to son, and is inhabited by the birds 

 annually, though the nest is always robbed. The macaws 

 imported belong, almost without exception, to these young 



