bed and blue maoaw. 
71 
forests of Brazil and Guiana; Dr. Russ adds “Mexico and Peru”, but 
we doubt its occurrence in the former country; its head-quarters 
appear to be the Amazon region, which it shares with numerous species 
of the Psitticidce. 
Waterton, writing of the bird under consideration, observes, “Su- 
perior in size and beauty to any Pai’rot of South America, the Ara 
will force you to take your eyes from the rest of animated nature 
and gaze at him : his commanding sti’ength, the flaming scarlet of his 
body, the lovely variety of red, yellow, blue, and green in his wings, 
the extraordinary length of his scarlet and blue tail, seem all to join 
and demand for him the title of Emperor of all the Parrots”, which 
is a still higher title that we had ventured to confer upon him in the 
opening sentences of this chapter. 
“He is scarce in Demerara”, continues our author, “until you reach 
the confines of the Macoushi country; there he is in vast abundance: 
he mostly feeds on trees of the palm species. When the coucourite 
trees have ripe fruit upon them, they are covered with this magnificent 
Parrot. He is not shy or wary; you may take your blowpipe and a 
quiver of poisoned arrows and kill more than you are able to carry 
back to your hut.” 
Let us hope the American naturalist was never guilty of such a 
piece of wanton cruelty, not to say sacrilege as that he hints at here: 
he continues, “They are very vociferous, and like the common Parrots, 
rise up in bodies towards sunset, and fly two and two to their places 
of rest. It is a grand sight in ornithology to see thousands of Aras 
flying over your head, low enough to let you have a full view of their 
flaming mantle. The Indians find the flesh very good, and the feathers 
serve for ornaments in their head-dresses.” 
These birds make their nests in the holes of trees, which they en- 
large and fashion to their liking: there are usually two broods in the 
season, of two young each time; male and female sit alternately upon 
the eggs, which are generally two, very rarely three, in number. It 
is not unusual for the females of this species to lay in captivity, and 
even to evince a strong desire to incubate, but young ones aie rare, 
and we know of no well authenticated instance in which they have 
reared their offspring in captivity: seeing, however, that the Red and 
Blue Macaws that are brought into this country, were taken when 
quite young from their nest, reared by hand, and are consequently 
quite tame, there seems no reason why they should not freely breed 
here, as well as many of their congeners, but in all probability this 
is because no serious attempt has ever been made to induce them to 
nest in our aviaries. 
