MACAWS. 
175 
arrow-like swiftness^ and chase eacli other precisely after the 
manner the swifts are seen to do in our own islands. In the 
public roads of Van Dieraen^s Land the beautiful Tlatycerci 
may be constantly seen in small companies, performing pre- 
cisely the same offices as the sparrow in England. I have 
also seen flocks of from fifty to a hundred^ like tame pigeons, 
at the barndoors in the farmyards of the settlers, to which 
they descend for the refuse grain thrown out with the straw 
by the threshers. As might naturally be expected, the 
agriculturist is often sadly annoyed by the destruction cer- 
tain species effect among his newdy-sown and ripening corn, 
particularly w^here the land has been recently cleared, and 
is adjacent to the brushes"^.^^ 
The Macaw^s are long-tailed South American parrots, the 
cheeks of w^hich have a large space of skin crossed with nar- 
row stripes of small feathers ; the beak is of very large size. 
In the northern parts of Brazil Mr. Gardnerf met w^ith three 
species. These birds feed chiefly on the soft fruit of a palm 
called the Buriti ; they generally fly in pairs, and deafen 
the traveller with their loud cries of ^^ara, ara, ara/^ From 
their cries resembling this w^ord, the Indians call them 
* Introduction to * Birds of Australia,' p. 70. 
t Travels in Brazil, p. 279. 
