MACAW 



527 



their base they cross each other, and then diverge, bending round 

 forwards near their tip. The lemaining twelve feathers (Fig. 3) 

 except near the base are very thinly furnished with barbs, about 

 a quarter of an inch apart, and those they possess, on their greater 



Portion of Middle Tail-feather. 



Pig. 3. 

 Portion of Intermediate Tail-feather. 



Menura superba. 



part, though long and flowing, bear no barbules, and hence have a 

 hair-like appearance. The shafts of all are exceedingly strong. 

 In the male of M. alberti the tail is not only not lyriform, but 

 the exterior rectrices are shorter than the rest. 



M 



MACAW, or, as formerly spelt, Maccaw,^ the name given to 

 about a score of species of large, long-tailed birds of the Order 

 FsiUaci (Parrot), natives of the Neotropical Region, and forming 

 a very well-known and in some respects easily recognized group to 

 which the generic designation Ara is usually applied by orni- 

 thologists, though some prefer for it Macrocercus or Sittace, while 



^ Thus Willughby (1676), Ornithologia, p. 73 ; but an earlier form of the word 

 is found in the "great blew and yellow Parrat called the Machao, or Cockatooii " 

 of Charleton, Onomasticon, p. 66 (1668). Its derivation is shewn by De Laet, who, 

 in his description of certain Brazilian birds (JVovus Orbis, ed. 1633, p. 556), has 

 "inter alios [sc. Psittacos] excellunt magnitudine & jiulchritudine, quos barbari 

 Ara ras k Macaos Yoca,nt" and again {loc. cit.) "Tertium locum meretur Ararwia 

 vel Machao. " AVebster, in his dictionary, says that Macaw, ' ' written also Maccao, " 

 is "the native name in the Antilles," but gives no authority for his statement, 



