ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



869 



the long chain of Lesser Antillian islets which 

 extends in a wide curve from Porto Rico to 

 South America. North of it is Guadaloupe, with 

 Martinique to the south. It is roughly a flat oval 

 in shape, twenty-five by sixteen miles and very 

 mountainous. As I have passed it going and 

 coming from South America I could clearly dis- 

 cern the high central ridge extending north and 

 south, and sending out numerous spurs at right 

 angles, dividing the entire island into a succes- 

 sion of abrupt hills and valleys. 



Thirty-five years ago Mr. Ober wrote a brief 

 account of this bird in its haunts, and since that 

 time but little more has been added to our 

 knowledge of the species. This splendid parrot 

 which the natives call Ciceroo, can be found only 

 in the highest mountains where the mountain 

 palm, gommier or gum-tree, bois diable and 

 other plants are found, upon the seeds of which 

 it feeds. It is very shy and difficult of ap- 

 proach, and Mr. Ober tells us, "the cry is harsh, 

 resembling the call of a wild turkey. Morning 

 and evening they call one to another for perhaps 

 an hour; during the rest of the day they remain 

 silent, except for an occasional scream. When 

 a gun is fired, they all cry out, and then keep 

 perfect silence. The}' do not seem to associate 

 in flocks at this season, like the parrot, but are 

 found more often in pairs. They breed in the 

 hollow tops of high trees, and the young are 

 rarely taken. When caught young, they readily 

 learn to talk. It descends to the valleys in the 

 rainy season to some extent, but prefers the 

 mountains. At this time they are very fat, ex- 

 cellent eating, and much hunted." 



Mr. Ober made an excursion into their moun- 

 tain fastnesses and camped on their feeding 

 grounds, but so wild and wary were the birds, 

 that though assisted by Carib Indian hunters, 

 he was able to secure only three, which are now 

 in the National Museum. In later years a new 

 road was opened through the forest and one col- 

 lector shot a dozen specimens. 



Whatever fluctuations may mark the final 

 years of a species, we may be almost certain that 

 in the case of a conspicuous insular parrot such 

 as this, there is small hope of more than a few 

 years' lease of life. 



Considered as one of the creatures which man 

 will soon efface from the earth, the Imperial 

 Amazon illustrates an interesting fact. Instead 

 of being spread over a million square miles as 

 was the Carolina parrakeet, this bird is found 

 only on about one hundred and fifty miles of the 

 earth's surface. But isolation in the thick tropi- 

 cal jungle of one small mountain ridge has done 

 more for it than all the advantages which vast 



northern forests and southern everglades con- 

 ferred on the parrakeet. 



As we have seen how our single northern 

 representative of the order of Parrots has been 

 almost if not wholly exterminated in the United 

 States,* it is worth while briefly to review the 

 present status of these birds in the West Indies. 

 Three distinct groups of parrots formerly in- 

 habited these islands, macaws, Amazons and 

 conures or parrakeets. Of the several species 

 of macaws, not one survives to-day, and whereas 

 formerly, members of this splendid group of 

 birds lived in Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Guadaloupe. 

 Dominica and Martinique, all have been extermi- 

 nated b}' the inhabitants, the persecution being 

 the direct result of the palatibility of the birds. 

 The last of the West Indian macaws to go was 

 Ara tricolor, which lived in Cuba and the Isle 

 of Pines. It was nearly two feet in length, clad 

 in orange, maroon, scarlet and blue. The last 

 specimen was killed forty-eight years ago, and 

 to-day less than a dozen skins are known to 

 exist in museums. As to the other species of 

 macaws we have only the brief, all too imper- 

 fect, accounts of early French voyageurs and 

 missionaries. 



Thirteen species of Amazon parrots are West 

 Indian, and fortunately only two have already 

 become extinct, although several, like the Im- 

 perial Amazon, are almost gone. Six forms oc- 

 cur in the Greater Antilles in extremely dimin- 

 ished numbers ; two in Jamaica, and one each in 

 Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti and Porto Rico. Grand 

 Cayman, far to the southeast of Cuba also has a 

 peculiar species of Amazon. These birds, with 

 their more or less white foreheads are apparently 

 related to the white-fronted Amazon of Mexico 

 and Central America. Starting with the Lesser 

 Antilles and going southward, we find two 

 species of this group of parrots in Dominica 

 and one in Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vin- 

 cent. Unlike the more northern forms, these 

 natives of the smaller islands seem to have a 

 South American ancestry, showing a closer re- 

 semblance to Brazilian species. 



The violet Amazon, closely related to our 

 Imperial bird, formerly lived in Guadaloupe, 

 but we have now not so much as a feather left 

 to us. From descriptions we know that its head 

 and neck were violet or slate-colored, its back 

 green and its wings yellow and red. More than 

 two hundred and fifty years ago it was written 

 of this bird that when it eats cashew nuts its 

 flesh tastes like garlic; if it feeds on "bois des 

 inde" it tastes like cloves ; if on bitter fruits, it 



* The last authentic record is that of Mr. Frank M. Chapman, 

 who, in April, 1904, saw thirteen Carolina parrakeets ifl the 

 Okeechobee region of southern Florida. 



