MACAWS. 



153 



black ; feet greyish-black ; irides straw-yellow. Female 

 of the same size as the male, but with a shorter beak, 

 broader when seen in profile, with more arched culmen. 

 Hab., " Guatemala to Guiana and Bolivia and the 

 Amazon Valley" (Salvadori.) 



Burmeister (" Systematische Uebersicht," II., p. 156) 

 says: "This species goes farthest south of all the 

 Araras, and formerly might even be met with in the 

 wooded environs of Rio ,de Janeiro, now it has long 

 .since deserted the inhabited regions. It delights in the 

 great primeval forests in the neighbourhood of rivers 

 S3 long as they flow through level country, and is 

 unwilling to ascend to the higher mountain-forests. 

 Nevertheless, one finds it at the lower Parahyba and 

 Rio da Pomba, as well as farther to the north in all 

 the dense coastal woods right up to Bahia ; yet it is in 

 evidence even farther south than Rio de Janeiro, at St. 

 Paulo." 



" The loud', quite Crow-like, cry of the flushed bird 

 astonished me, and I soon recognised it by its size and 

 brilliant colouring. I cannot deny that the sound has 

 a resemblance to the name of the bird Arara, but it 

 founded deeper, as a throaty sound which passed into 

 a screech, and I do not doubt that in other ears it would 

 seem exactly Arara. As a rule the indication of animal 

 voices is subject to considerable variations, because 

 different nations recognise different sounds from our- 

 selves ; whereby the difference of the accounts is ex- 

 plained. Thus, for instance, the Prince zu Wied denies 

 the resemblance of the note to the name. According 

 to the detailed information given by this attentive tra- 

 veller the bird chiefly subsists on the fruits of the 

 Sapucaya (Lecythis ollctria), the Juvia (Bertholletia 

 excelsa), and various mealy palm-berries, such as the 

 liicuri (Cocos capitata) or Aricuri (Cocos carinata), the 

 reddish-yellow fruit-clusters of which are serviceable 

 even for human beings, and must euit these birds admir- 

 ably. One also sees them frequently busied with the 

 fruits of the climbing plants, among which especially 

 the forms called Spinhia by the Brazilians afford them 

 food. All these plants thrive only in the dense primi- 

 tive forest, and that is also the home of the bird ; they 

 do not occur on the open Campos, and they scarcely 

 encroach upon the more open forests of the interior far 

 from the larger rivers ; but where the primeval forest 

 is ever most in evidence the Arara can be expected with 

 certainty. Yet one sees it only in email companies, 

 and more often than with other Parrots, even solitary ; 

 they do not occur in large flocks, like several smaller 

 species." 



The first specimen of this Macaw exhibited at Regent's 

 Park was deposited in 1861 ; altogether, probably about 

 four dozen examples have, at various times, found a 

 home there. It is a very well-known bird, which Russ 

 speaks of as represented at almost every large exhibi- 

 tion. 



MILITARY MACAW (Ara militaris). 



The prevailing tint is a somewhat olivaceous green, 

 with the head' of a purer green ; on the 1 nape is a slight 

 bluish shade ; the forehead and lines on the lores are 

 vermilion ; on the cheeks are greenish-black lines ; the 

 chin is brown ; the hinder part of the back, the rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts are pale-blue ; the primaries and 

 secondaries blue, yellowish olivaceous below ; the under 

 wing-coverts green, the greater ones slightly dusky ; 

 the four central tail-feathers dull red, broadly tipped 

 with blue ; the two next on each side blue, edged to- 

 wards the base with dull red ; the two outer feathers 

 almost wholly blue; under-surface of tail olivaceous 



yellow ; the naked skin of the cheeks flesh-coloured ; 

 iris of eye yellowish-grey ; the beak blackish, and the 

 legs blackish-igrey. Female smaller, with distinctly 

 shorter beak, the culmen more arched. Hab., Mexico 

 to Central and South America, occurring from Bogota 

 to Peru and Bolivia. 



Stolzmann (" Taczanowski's Ornothologie de Perou," 

 Vol. III., p. 192) says: "It keeps in companies com- 

 posed of two, three, or more pairs. The most 'numerous 

 which I have seen was of nine pairs ; they usually fly 

 very high, making themselves heard by a penetrating 

 and strong voice. After they have settled upon a tree 

 they feed in silence, and one is only conscious of the 

 crushing of fruit and the sound of the fall of the re- 

 mains.C'f the husk. Sometimes they only babble quietly, 

 as if they were holding a conversation together. It is 

 a very cautious bird ; at the slightest cracking of a 

 branch their leader, crying cra-cra-cra, alarms the whole 

 assismbly, which departs crying. Their flight is hurried. 



" At Concolo, a colony composed of some cottages 

 above the little town of Chows, I have seen the nesting- 

 place of the Parrakeets. It was a vertical, clayey de- 

 clivity excavated in many burrows ; these holes serve for 

 its eggs. A very numerous colony has successively occu- 

 pied it without intermission. It was in the month of 

 May. I suppose, however, that it may also nest in 

 holes- in trees." 



In his " Two Bird-lovers in Mexico " C. W. Beebe 

 says (pp. 173; 174) : " In the morning we were wakened 

 by the screams of Macaws. When the notes first reached 

 my ear I knew 'that I had heard them before, but where 

 I could not think, and not until I rushed out and saw 

 the birds did I connect the sound with the din of a 

 Parrot-house in a zoological park. There the harsh 

 screams rend' one's ears, but here, between the walls of 

 the mighty gorge, it is an. entirely different utterance. 

 From high overhead the guttural tones came softened, 

 and, our eyes following, we see a pair always a pair 

 of the great birds, with their long, sweeping tails and 

 quickly-vibrating winge, passing steadily aorcss the sky. 

 While thus silhouetted against th light they seemed 

 black, but when they reached a background of rock or 

 trees their colours flashed out 'beautiful living greens 

 with lesser tints of brown and golden oJive. They were 

 Military Macaws, and they always flew thus closely 

 together, morning and evening, from rocet to feeding- 

 ground and back." 



As usual, this species generally nests in hollow trees, 

 laying its two eggs on the bare wood. Though rather 

 smaller than its handsome relative, the Red and Blue 

 Macaw, this epecies has quite as powerful a e-creech. 

 In its own country it is said to be very destructive to 

 the crops. 



Attempts have been made to breed this species, and 

 (I believe) with partial success, inasmuch as young have 

 been hatched ; but whether any have ever left the nest 

 I cannot say. Doubtless in a very strongly-built and 

 extensive aviary, furnished with plenty of branches and 

 hollow' logs, this or any other Macaw might be success- 

 fully bred, and as these birds are still very expensive 

 it might be worth while for a man who had a big 

 aviary vacant to try the experiment; only I should 

 advise him to have a very stout wire for its enclosure, 

 or the Macaws, with their natural cutting-pliers, would 

 coon be at liberty. When tame the Military Macaw is 

 intelligent, and soon learns to speak or imitate th-s cries 

 of animals. 



The first example exhibited at the London Zoological 

 Gardens in Regent's Park was purchased in 1864, and 

 others have been purchased, presented, or deposited 



