PARROTS. 
114 
base of the lower jaw. The black beak is of unusually large size even for a 
macaw, and the feet are blackish. The total length of this line bird is about 
34 inches, of which 204 are taken up by the tail. The hyacinthine macaw is a 
somewhat rare species, and although inhabiting the dense tropical forests affected 
by the other macaws, it is said by Azara to differ markedly in regard to 
its breeding-habits. In place of building in some hollow tree, it is stated to 
scoop out a burrow on the bank of a river, where it lays a pair of eggs; two 
broods being reared in a season. These birds—the ararauna of the natives— 
fly, according to Bates, in pairs, and feed on palm-nuts, which, although so hard 
as to be difficult to break with a heavy hammer, are crushed to pulp by their 
beaks. The skulls of the hyacinthine macaw and its congeners differ from those 
of ordinary macaws in the incompleteness of the bony ring round the eye. The 
same feature is probably also characteristic of Spix’s macaw (Cyanopsittacus 
spixi), which, although agreeing with the ararauna in its blue coloration, differs 
by the naked lore, on which account it is regarded as representing a distinct 
genus. 
True Macaws. 
The true macaws differ from the preceding in the absence of 
blue on the under part of the body, and also by the completeness 
of the bony ring; in the skull round 
the eye. In all of them the lores, as 
well as a larger or smaller area of the 
cheeks, are devoid of feathers. The 
range of these splendid birds, which 
are locally known as araras, extends 
from Mexico to Bolivia and Paraguay, 
certain species ranging in the Andes 
to elevations of some ten thousand 
feet above the sea. 
Of the fourteen recognised 
species, a few of the better-known 
will alone be mentioned. Among 
™ these the red-and-blue macaw (Arct 
macao), represented on the right side 
of our coloured Plate, is one of the handsomest. In this species the general 
colour of both the upper and under-parts is vermilion red, while the upper 
wing-coverts are chrome-yellow; the lower part of the back, the rump, upper and 
lower tail-coverts, together with the quills of the wings being blue. The tail- 
feathers are scarlet, with more or less blue at their tips (except in the central 
pair) and on their outer edges, the outermost being almost wholly blue. Beneath, 
both the tail and wing-feathers are golden-red, while the greater and upper median 
wing-coverts, as well as the scapulars, are yellow tipped with green. I 11 size this 
splendid bird attains a total length of 3 feet, nearly 2 of which are taken up by 
the tail. Its range is large, extending from Mexico to Guiana and the Amazon 
Valley. In marked contrast to the above, is the coloration of the blue and yellow 
macaw (A. ararauna), depicted at the top of our Plate. In this bird while 
the upper surface of the body, wings, and tail is blue, almost the whole of the 
