1867.] MR. p. L. SCLATER ON SOME SPECIES OF PARROTS. 183 



from a sawyer, who found them in a scrub on the east coast, where 

 he was at work, and where he observed the species moving about in 

 small flocks of from fifteen to twenty in number, and by uo means 

 shy. 



3, Notes upon some Parrots living in the Society's Mena- 

 gerie. By P. L. ScLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secre- 

 tary to the Society. 



(Plate XVI.) 



In preparing for press a new edition of the List of Vertebrated 

 Animals in the Society's living collection, I have made some notes 

 upon certain species of Parrots now represented in the Society's ex- 

 tensive living series of these birds, which may be worthy of record. 



A Maccaw purchased for the Society at Liverpool on the '23rd of 

 August last appears to be quite distinct from the Military Maccaws 

 previously in the collection, differing materially both in its larger 

 size and in the enormous width of the lower mandible. In these 

 birds, therefore, it appears that we have now living side by side in the 

 Parrot-house examples of both the species of " Military Maccaws " 

 figured by Levaillant in his great work on Parrots, the existence of 

 which has been so often denied. That the larger bird, with its 

 enormously crass under mandible, is specifically different from the 

 smaller and more common one can, I think, hardly be denied by 

 those who have seen them both together, although there is but slight 

 difference in the plumage, as far as I can tell from examination of the 

 hving birds. The name militaris must, I think, be reserved for the 

 smaller of the two species {TJ Ara militaire, Levaill. Perr. pi. A), 

 whilst the larger {Le Grand Ara militaire, Levaill. pi. 6) must be 

 called Ara ambigua (Bechst.), Bechstein's term having been founded 

 upon Levaillant' s last-mentioned figure. 



The two species may be diagnosed as follows : — 



"f- Ara ambigua : major : rostro majore et mandihula prcecipue 

 multo magis crassa : pileo obscurius viridi et fluvo varieyato : 

 ex Mexico. 



-fr-AKA MILITARIS : minor : rostro modico : pileo unicolore Icete vi- 

 ridi : ex Nov. Granada : rep. -(Equat. et Peruvia, inter Andes. 



I have no doubt that the smaller is the South American bird, as I 

 have an example of it in my own collection from Bogota. I conjecture, 

 therefore, that the larger one is from Mexico, as Swainson and others 

 have recorded the occurrence of Ara niilitai'is in that country. 



Another very interesting recent addition to the Society's collection 

 consists of two fine examples of the beautiful Green-tailed Lory of 

 San Cristoval, Salomon Islands (Lorius chlorocercus), described by 



