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HYACINTHINE MACAW. 
Dr. Russ 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 knovv ledge 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 Regent'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, 
