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 Thibaudice ; 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. 
f “ Ifc is easil y tamed ”, writes Selby, in his History of the Psittacidce, 
“and of a docile disposition, but can rarely be taught to articulate 
moie 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. Russ, in his excellent Handluch fur 
Vogelliebkaber, says, “ Heimat Nordwesten Sudamerikas und Mittelamerika 
bis sum Norden Mexicos”, 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 - 
rocercincft) , 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 
