66 MILITARY MACAW. 



beneath, which is also the colour of the under wing surface. The 

 orbits and cheeks are naked, and of a pinky flesh colour, with four 

 narrow stripes, or bands, of a brownish purple colour upon the latter; 

 the irides are composed of a double circle, the outer of which is 

 bright yellow, and the inner greyish green. 



It is rather smaller than most of the Macaws, measuring about 

 twenty-nine inches from beak to tail. Wagler asserts that it differs 

 from most of its congeners in many of its habits; in, for instance, 

 that it frequents cultivated fields, where it does much harm to the 

 growing crops, and where, Cockatoo fashion, it places a guard upon 

 the summits of the surrounding trees to give timely warning of ap- 

 proaching danger; which guard is subsequently fed from the crops of 

 some of the party, who disgorge a portion of the spoils they have 

 carried away, for the benefit of their vigilant sentries. 



Wagler also states that these birds are in the habit of feeding upon 

 the blossoms of the Erythince, and Thibaudicej but whether for the 

 sake of the honey they contain, or for the fleshy substance of the 

 flower itself and the embryo seed-vessel, does not clearly appear from 

 his account. 



"It is easily tamed", writes Selby, in his History of the Psittacidce, 

 "and of a docile disposition, but can rarely be taught to articulate 

 more than a few words. It appears to have been a favourite among 

 the ancient Peruvians, as we are told it was frequently presented to 

 the Incas, by their subjects, as an acceptable gift/'' 



Edwards appears to have been the first writer who described this 

 bird, which was figured by him in his Gleanings of Natural History; 

 though ignorant when he wrote of its true habitat, he rightly con- 

 jectured it to be an American bird. 



Writing of this species, Dr. Euss, in his excellent Handbuch fur 

 Vogelliebhaber, says, "Heimat Nordwesten Siidamerikas und Mittelamerika 

 bis zum Norden Mexico s" , though its occurrence in the latter region 

 seems to us to require confirmation. 



Like all the Parrot family, with the exceptions already mentioned, 

 these birds breed in hollow trees, making no nest, properly so called, 

 but laying their eggs, restricted to two throughout this group [Mac- 

 rocercince) } on the bare wood. 



All the Macaws, like the former human inhabitants of their native 

 land, are worshippers of the sun; to judge, that is to say, by the 

 deafening clamour with which they greet the dawn of day. When 

 the great orb of the sun makes its first appearance above the horizon, 

 all of these birds that inhabit the district wake up from their slumbers, 

 and fly, as with one accord, to a common place of rendezvous, generally 



