MACAW 527 
their base they cross each other, and then diverge, bending round 
forwards near their tip. The remaining 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 
Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 
PorTION OF MIDDLE TAIL-FEATHER. 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 
Psittact (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 
1 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 Cockatoon ” 
of Charleton, Onomasticon, p. 66 (1668). Its derivation is shewn by De Laet, who, 
in his description of certain Brazilian birds (Novus Orbis, ed. 1633, p, 556), has 
‘inter alios [sc. Psittacos] excellunt magnitudine & pulchritudine, quos barbari 
Araras & Macaos vocant,” and again (loc, cit.) ‘‘Tertium locum meretur Araruna 
vel Machao.” Webster, in his dictionary, says that Macaw, ‘‘ written also Maccao,” 
is ‘‘the native name in the Antilles,” but gives no authority for his statement, 
