388 



SCARLET MACCAW. 



the lower belly, and coverts under the tail, as also 

 the lower part of the back, and coverts on the 

 upper side of the tail, are of a very fine blue 

 colour: the tail-feathers gradually shorten towards 

 the sides ; some of the longest or middle-feathers 

 are wholly red ^ the shorter or side-feathers are 

 partly red and partly blue ; their tips being blue, 

 and their bottoms red : the legs and feet are co- 

 vered with blackish or dusky scales : the toes are 

 disposed two forwards and two backwards, as in 

 other Parrots, all armed with strong claws." 



This noble bird, at its first introduction into 

 Europe, was justly considered as a present fit for 

 royal personages, and was one of the principal 

 ornaments in the halls of palaces. It seems to 

 have been extremely rare till towards the decline 

 of the sixteenth century. 



Aldrovandus, a zealous naturalist, mentions his 

 having seen one at the court of the Duke of Man- 

 tua, where he also observed a very fine specimen 

 ' of the next species, or Great Blue and Yellow 

 Maccaw. 



The Scarlet Maccaw is a bird which occasionally 

 varies in some degree in point of size and colours, 

 but the differences seem to be merely such as may 

 be supposed to result from the more or less ad- 

 vanced age of the bird, and a more or less perfect 

 state of plumage. 



The manners of this species and the next or 

 ' Blue and Yellow Maccaw, in a state of nature, are 

 said to be exactly similar, and are well detailed in 

 the Ornithology of the Count de BufTon. They 



