Mr. 0. Salvin on the Psittacidse of Central America. 89 



during his residence in the city of Mexico. In Guatemala the 

 bird has never yet been met with, nor yet in Honduras ; and we 

 do not find any record of its occurrence till we come to Costa 

 Rica, where examples were collected at Barba by Carmiol, 

 which are now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Dr. V. Frantzius also mentions it in his list of the birds of 

 Costa Rica (J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 364) . 



In Veragua it seems to be not uncommon, and Arce has sent 

 us several specimens from the neighbourhood of Calobre. 



It occurs on the Isthmus of Panama (Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. 

 vii. p. 299), and also on the Nercua River (Cass. Pr. Ac, Phil. 

 1860, p. 137.). 



In the southern continent this species ranges as far as Bolivia 

 [cf. Finsch, I. c). 



In a note (P. Z. S. 1867, p. 183) on living specimens of this 

 Maccaw in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, Mr. Sclater 

 endeavours to differentiate the Mexican race from that found in 

 the southern continent, and adopts Bechstein's name ambigua 

 for the northern bird, retaining the name militaris for the 

 southern. Judging from a Bogota skin in his own collection, 

 Mr. Sclater says that the smaller bird is that found in South 

 America, and hence concludes that the larger belongs to 

 Mexico. With Veraguan and Mr. le Strangers Mexican speci- 

 mens before me, exactly the opposite conclusion presents itself: 

 the Veraguan specimens are the larger. Therefore, in the face 

 of this difficulty, I am indisposed to admit of the existence of two 

 species depending for their validity on disparity of size alone. 



2. Ara MACAO (Linn.). 



Ara arucanga, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 137; P. Z. S. 1864, 

 p. 367. 



Sittace macao, Finsch, Papag. i. p. 398. 



Though included by Lichtenstein in his ' Preisverzeichniss 

 der Thiere aus Mexico,^ Ara macao has never been sent from 

 within the limits of Mexico by any naturalist since the days of 

 Deppe and Scheide (1 830) ; and I think it probable that, if the 

 species really occurs in Mexico at all, it is only to be found in the 

 forest country, on the Pacific side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. 



