62 HYACINTHINE MACAW. 



Dr. Euss quotes the price of one of these birds at from six hundred 

 marks to nine hundred marks — the mark being about equivalent to 

 an English shilling. 



This bird is stated, on the authority of Azara, to depart from the 

 general habits of the family in selecting a nesting-place, and instead 

 of rearing its young brood in a hollow tree, to scrape out for itself 

 a burrow in the bank of some stream; also to lay but two eggs to a 

 sitting, and to rear two broods in the season. 



It would be curious to find out the reason, or reasons that have 

 compelled the departure of this bird from the habits general to the 

 greater number of its congeners, but it is hopeless to make the attempt, 

 unless some one should acquire a knowledge of the creature's language, 

 and obtain a personal explanation from the bird itself; it cannot be 

 from lack of hollow trees in which to breed, for the Hyacinthine Macaw 

 inhabits the same regions as many of the tree-nesting Macaws, the 

 Amazon Parrots, and the Toucans; and it can scarcely be that the 

 banks of a stream, in a country subject to inundations, afford a securer 

 dwelling-place than the hollow trees in which so many of its relations 

 live. 



There is no rule without an exception, it is said, and it probably 

 is in order to prove the rule that Parrots build in hollow trees, that 

 the Hyacinthine Macaw, and a few others, have selected for themselves 

 a dwelling place of a totally different character. 



We have no knowledge of these birds having bred in captivity, but 

 from indications we have observed in the specimen living in the 

 Gardens of the London Zoological Society in the Kegent's Park, we 

 should say there would be no difficulty in inducing them to breed, 

 were they but provided with suitable accommodation, in a dwelling- 

 place of sufficient extent to contain a stream with a bank, and a hollow 

 tree or two, when it would be extremely interesting to observe on 

 which of the two situations they would fix their choice. 



Will some one, at the "Zoo", or out of it — preferably out of it — 

 make the attempt, and let us know the result. We would do it, but 

 unfortunately have not the necessary accommodation: but there are 

 plenty of rich amateurs to whom the expenditure of £50 or so in the 

 gratification of their peculiar hobby is no object at all, let some of 

 these try what they can do, and determine, as far as can be practically 

 done, whether it is by choice, or from necessity, that the Hyacinthine 

 Macaw makes a burrow in a bank, instead of in a tree, for the purpose 

 of rearing its callow brood; for it is only by thus experimenting that 

 this and other kindred and equally interesting questions can be solved. 



Though noisy, the Macaws, and the Hyacinthine species in particular, 



