68 UIRDS OK THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA PART 2 



of all of the larger species, may be quoted here for its interest. He 

 wrote that "Macaw-birds are here also in good plenty. 'Tis shap'd not 

 much unlike a Parrot, but is as large again as the biggest of them. It 

 has a Bill like a Hawk's ; and a bushy Tail, with two or three long 

 stragling Feathers, all Red or Blue: The Feathers all over the Body 

 are of several very bright and lovely Colours, Blue, Green and Red. 

 The Pinions of the Wings of some of them are all Red, of others all 

 Blue, and the Beaks yellow. They make a great Noise in a Morning, 

 very hoarse and deep, like Men who speak much in the Throat. The 

 Indians keep these Birds tame, as we do Parrots, or Mag-pies : But 

 after they have kept them close sometime, and taught them to speak 

 some Words in their Language, they suffer them to go abroad in the 

 Day-time into the Woods, among the wild ones ; from whence they 

 will on their own accord return in the Evening to the Indian's Houses 

 or Plantations, and give notice of their arrival by their fluttering and 

 prating. They will exactly imitate the Indian's Voices, and their way 

 of Singing, and they will call the Chicaly-Chicaly in its own Note, as 

 exactly as the Indians themselves, whom I have observ'd to be very 

 expert at it. 'Tis the most beautiful and pleasant Bird, that ever I saw ; 

 and the Flesh is sweet-tasted enough, but black and tough." 



The typical subspecies ranges from Nicaragua south through Costa 

 Rica, and Panama to northwestern Colombia. Schonwetter (Handb. 

 Ool., pt. 9, 1964, p. 516) lists the size of an egg in the Nehrkorn 

 collection as 55 X46 mm. Another race A. a. guayaquilensis Chapman 

 has been described from western Ecuador. 



ARA MACAO (Linnaeus) : Scarlet Macaw; Guacamayo Bandera 



Figure 8 



Psittacus Macao Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 96. (Lower Ama- 

 zonas, Brazil.) 



A large macaw, red on head and lower surface of body, with a 

 prominent band of yellow across the inner greater wing coverts, scapu- 

 lars, and tertials ; feather lines across bare side of head reduced to 

 filaments. 



Description. — Length 800-960 mm. Adult (sexes alike) , head, hind- 

 neck, upper back, and lesser and middle wing coverts bright red, with 

 the outer wing coverts tipped with dark green ; lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail coverts bright blue, bordered narrowly with olive-green to 

 olive-yellow ; inner greater wing coverts, inner secondaries, and tertials 

 orange-yellow to bright yellow, tipped with green; primary coverts, 

 alula, primaries, and outer secondaries deep blue, with the shafts and 



