62 cassell's book of birds. 



trees, and is often seen perched upon the branches, sometimes even in heavy storms of rain, 

 which it willingly allows to soak its feathers. During the breeding season it lives in pairs, at other 

 times in flocks. 



The Anakans search the woods for fruit, and very often do great damage to the maize ; their 

 flight is astonishingly rapid, and their voice loud and harsh, but shriller and weaker than that of the 

 large Araras. When a party of these birds is perched upon a tree, they utter soft, strange notes, as 

 though talking together, the sound resembling the murmur of conversation. The male and female 

 often sit in pairs on the high branches. The flesh of this bird is much esteemed, both by natives 

 and Europeans, and, indeed, is excellent. 



In the Macaws we have been describing, the prevailing colour of the upper feathers is a more 

 or less bright green ; but in the following genera blue predominates. 



THE ARARAUNA 



The Ararauna (Ara Siltace Ararauna) is a very well-known bird, not inferior to any of the 

 preceding in magnificence. The body is somewhat smaller, the tail, on the contrary, longer, than in 

 the Scarlet Macaw ; it may be reckoned as thirty-seven inches long, of which quite twenty inches 

 belong to the tail ; the wing measures twenty inches from the shoulder to the tip. The eye is greenish 

 white, the beak and shoulder black. The forehead, a great part of the tail, and also a ring round 

 the throat, are green. This colour changes above into light blue, whilst the under side is of the 

 colour of the yolk of an egg ; the same is the case with the tail. The upper and under tail-covers are 

 blue. The outer webs of the wings are darker, those of the inner webs almost black, but only on 

 their upper surface, for the under side shades off into dull yellow; the same is the case with the 

 tail-feathers. The lower part of the face is more darkly coloured than the upper throat ; the chin is 

 almost black, the bare cheeks are white, with three rows of blackish feathers. 



According to the statements of travellers, the habits of the Araraunas are very similar to those of 

 the Scarlet Macaw. The extent of country over which they are found is not exactly known. Schom- 

 burghk saw them sitting in considerable numbers on trees upon the banks of the Rio Takutu. They 

 are seldom found on the eastern coast, and have long been driven from the inhabited districts. 



THE HYACINTH-COLOURED ARARA. 



The Hyacinth-coloured Arara (Anodorhynchus hyazinthinics) has with great reason been 

 regarded as the type of a peculiar race, for this bird differs from the rest of its family in the same way 

 as the Nose Cockatoo differs from its fellows. The highly curved upper mandible is of considerable 

 size, and much stronger than in other macaws, with a sloping, elongated hook at its extremity, which 

 bends in the shape of a sickle over the under beak. The cheeks are thickly feathered, and only a 

 small circle round the eyes and another round the under beak is bare. The plumage is of an uniform 

 ultramarine, the crown, neck, wings, and tail are more darkly coloured than the throat, breast, and 

 belly ; in some lights it shimmers with pale sky blue. The wings on the lower side, the inner 

 webs of the wing-feathers, and the under side of the tail, are pale black ; the outermost wmg- 

 feathers sprinkled with black. The beak is of a brilliant black, the feet greyish black, and the 

 eyes brownish black. The naked place near the eyes, and also a narrow featherless border around 

 the beak, are dark yellow, lightly powdered. In size, this species is scarcely inferior to the Macaw ; 



