128 
CAGE AND SINGING BIRDS. 
been liig-li in favour with nobles and princes, and to Lave 
been held in something Hke rehgious veneration by the 
common people. When they were first brought into this 
country has not been clearly ascertained. It will be con- 
venient for our purpose to arrange them into six divisions, 
viz., macaws, parrots, parrdlieets, cockatoos, lories, and love- 
birds. 
THE RED AND BLUE MACAW. 
This is one of the largest of the parrot tribe, being about 
two feet eight inches long, or as large as a good-sized 
fowl. The prevaiHng colour of its plumage is a bright 
vermilion ; the back and rump are light blue, and the 
larger wing-coverts have a portion of this colour, mingled 
with green and yellow ; a whitish wrinkled skin covers the 
cheeks, similar in colour to the upper mandible, which 
projects considerably beyond the lower, where the hue is 
blackish ; the feet are gray. 
THE BLUE AND YELLOW MACAW 
Is about the same size as the above-named species, of which 
it is by some thought to be only a variety. It is a very 
beautiful bird, handsomer, as many think, than its scarlet re- 
lative, although its hues are not so gorgeous. The whole 
upper part of the body is a rich blue, changing at the 
smaller wing-coverts and sides of the neck, and top of the 
Lead, into pale green. The whole of the beak is black, and 
a collar of the same extends part of the way round the 
throat ; the cheeks are pale flesh colour, waved with black ; 
the under part of the body is a fine saffron yellow, and the 
long wedge-shaped tail is blue, the feathers being edged 
with violet, and marked at the base with black ; the feet 
are dark afehen gray. 
Neither of these macaws exhibit much variation of 
plumage in different individuals; nor is the female very 
different from the male. They are natives of Brazil, 
*Guiana, and other parts of South America, where they feed 
much on the seed of the fan-palm, being generally met 
with in pairs among the marshy swamps. Old birds can 
rarely be tamed, and never taught to speak biit the young 
are docile and intelligent pupils, becoming veiy loquacious, 
