528 AT AC AW 



others break it up into three or four genera as is done by Count T. 

 Salvadori {Cat. B. Br. Mus. xx. pp. 145-169). Most of the Macaws 

 are remarkable for their gaudy plumage, which exhibits the brightest 

 scarlet, yellow, blue and green in varying proportion and often in 

 violent contrast, while a white visage often adds a very peculiar and 

 expressive character. ■"■ With one exception the known species 

 inhabit the mainland of America from Paraguay to Mexico, being 

 especially abundant in Bolivia, where no fewer than seven of them 

 (or nearly one-half) have been found {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1879, p. 634). 

 The single extra-continental species, A. tricolor, is one of the most 

 brilliantly coloured, and is peculiar to Cuba, where, according to 

 Dr. Gundlach (Ornitdlogia Cubana, p. 126), its numbers are rapidly 

 decreasing, so that there is every chance of its becoming extinct.^ 



It will be enough here to dwell on the best-known species of 

 the group, and first the Blue-and-yellow Macaw, A. ararauna, which 

 has an extensive range in South America from Guiana in the east 

 to Colombia in the west. Southwards it is replaced in Paraguay by 

 the nearly allied A. caninde. Of large size, it is to be seen in 

 almost every zoological garden, and is frequently kept alive in private 

 houses, for its temper is pretty good, and it will become strongly 

 attached to those who tend it. Its richly-coloured plumage, suffi- 

 ciently indicated by its common English name, has the additional 

 recommendation of supplying feathers which are eagerly sought by 

 salmon-fishers for the making of " flies." Next may be mentioned the 

 Red-and-blue Macaw, A. macao, which is even larger and more 

 gorgeously clothed, for, beside the colours expressed in its ordinary 

 appellation, yellow and green enter into its adornment. It inhabits 

 Central as well as South America as far as Bolivia, and is also a 



which, considering that now one West Indian island only is known to possess a 

 Macaw (and that in that island the bird is known as Guacamayo), is very un- 

 likely. Some of the older writers, Buffon {Oiseaux, vi. p. 278) for instance, say 

 that Malcavouanne was the name given by natives of Guiana to one species of 

 Macaw found in that country ; but the Antillean origin of the name cannot at 

 present be accepted. 



^ This serves to separate the Macaws from the long-tailed Parrakeets of the 

 New World, Conurus, to which they are very nearly allied ; and Count T. 

 Salvadori {ut supra) places them indeed in the same subfamily, which in that 

 case should bear the name of Arinss instead of Conurinse. 



' There is good reason to think that Jamaica formerly i^ossessed a Macaw 

 (though no example is known to exist), and if so it was most likely a peculiar 

 species. Sloane [Voyage, ii. p. 297), after describing what he calls the "Great 

 Maccaw " [A. ararauna, to be spoken of in the text), which he had seen in captiv- 

 ity in that island, mentions the " Small Maccaw " as being very common in the 

 woods there, and Gosse [B. Jamaica, p. 260) gives, on the authority of Robinson, a 

 local naturalist of the last century, the description of a bird which cannot be 

 reconciled with any species now known, though it evidently must have been 

 allied to the Cuban A. tricolor (see Extermination, p. 220). 



