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The Greater Antillean Macaws

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The Greater Antillean Macaws Vol.•9o5XXII'] .J CLAR:q,T)•e Greater Anlillean Macaws. 345 THE GREATER ANTILLEAN MACAWS. BY AUSTIN H. CLARK. TH• followingcontinental speciesof Macaws have been errone- ouslycredited to the GreaterAntilles by the earlierwriters. The mistakesapparently arose from the birds havingbeen brought from the Mosquito Coast (or some other part of Central or South America), by ships trading locally, to Jamaica,and then, after a residencein that island,being reshipped to Englandor to Europe as natives there. The interior of Jamaica was then much less knownthan wasthe interior of Cuba or Haiti; thus specieswhich would have been at once recognizedas foreignto thoseislands passedas resident on Jamaica. Moreover, what appearto have been escapedbirds were occasionallykilled in the woods (vide Browne,Civil and Nat. Hist. Jamaica,p. 472, x789, under" 7'he 2ClueJliackaw of J•dwards"), whichtended to confirmpeople in their ideas that the birds were natives,they believingthat they were stragglersfrom their inaccessiblemountain homes. Now Macaws, like Parrots, althoughbirds of powerfulflight and spendingmuch time on the wing, seldompass over any great extentof water. Although larger and strongerthan parrots,they appearto be even mor• attachedto the mainlandthan are they; whereas speciesof the genus Amazonaare found on Cozumel, Tres Marias,Tigre and Ruatan(in the Bayof Honduras),Aruba, Curacao, Margarita, Trinidad, Tobago, and other islands off the northern South Americancoast (I do not considerin this con- nectionthe speciespeculiar to, and occurringon, the West Indies). Macawshave only been reportedfrom Trinidad, and no specimens appear ever to have have obtained there (Ara makawuanna L4otaud,Ois. de 1'fie de la Trinidad,app. p. 557, x866; Chapm. Bull. Am.Mus. Nat. Hist. VI, p. 66. •894).• It appears,therefore, very unlikelythat anycontinental species could ever have strayed •-Count Salvadori(Cat. BirdsBrit. Mus.XX, p. 168,I891 ) givesTrinidad in the rangeof .4. hahni, and mentionsan unsexedskin (purchased)from that island. PossiblyL•otaud's specieswas in reality.4. hahni. Somespe- ciesof greenmacaw certainly does occurthere. 346 CLARK,The Greater .4ntillean Macaws. I_Oct.[Auk asfar asJamaica, although it is possiblethat they occasionally escapedand were killed in an apparentlyferal state in the woods. I haveknown of ,4. araraunaand ,4. macaobeing killed on the islandof Barbados,probably having come from ships at anchorin the harbor,and, of courseparrots (and in onecase I knowof •I. macao)are sometimes shot even in thewoods of New England. Ara ararauna (Linn.). BLUE AND YELLOW MACAW. famaica,SLOANE, Nat. Hist.Jamaica, II, p. 296, x725. "VI. 2•sittacusmaximus cyanocroceus."--ALtoN, Nat.Hist. Birds, II, p. z6, •738. "The Maccawfrom Jamaica" (part).x-- BRXSSON, Orn. IV, p. •9•, x76o. "•Ira jamaicensiscyanocrocea."--BRowNE, Civil andNat. Hist. Jamaica, p. 472,x789 "The BlueMackaw of Edwards."-- LAxHAM, Gen. Hist. Birds, II, p. zo7,•822. "The Blue and Yellow Maccaw." g Ara macao8 (Linn.). RED AND YELLOW MACAW. famaica,ALBIN, lOC. tit. BRISSON,loc.clt. p. x88. ",4rajamai- Ce•sisJ • • Albinfigures a Red and Blue Macaw (pl. x7) as from Jamaica, saying it is themale of the Blue and Yellow Macaw. It wasprobably intended torepre- sent.4. macao (possibly colored from memory) which was commonly consid- ered the male of .4. ararauna. a Thereference to Latham's'Index' and'Synopsis'are contained in this work,and are therefore not givenhere. • Thename "macao" was given because the bird was supposed to have' comefrom Macao, near Hong Kong. The English word Macaw issaid by some to have been derived from it. Vol.x9o5XXII'] .1 CLaP.K,The GreaterAnlillean Macaws. 347 Ara chloroptera (SouancO). RED AND BLIIE MACAW. LATHA•X,loc. cit. p. •O2 "Red and Blue Maccaw," (occurson someof the islands[Antilles I also,"as well as on the continent). Ara severa (Linn.). Jamaica, BRISSON,loc. tit., p. 202. ",4ra brasiliensiserythro- chlora."--LATI•AM, loc. tit. p. xx2. "Brazilian Green Maccaw" (refersto Edwards[Glean.•, pl. 229 [x758•). Ara militaris (Linn.). MILITARY MACAW. Gosse (Birds of Jamaica, p. 26•, •847) supposesthat this speciesmight have been a native of Jamaica,living in the wilder mountain regions,and remarks that every descriptionhe received of the bird agreed with that of ,4. militaris, "the Great Green Macaw of Mexico." I agreewith Mr. Cory• that "it is not im- possiblethat ,4ra milltarts may have occurred in Cuba and Jamaica,but it is improbable. The bird recorded as such was perhaps,4. tricolorwrongly identified." 2 We have thus narrowed down the Greater Antillean Macaws to a singlespecies (,4. tricolor),which is not knownoutside of those islands;but which,like all the WestIndian parrots(,4mazona) is peculiarly Antillean.3 This species(or, perhaps, one closely related) appears certainly to have formerly lived on Jamaica. Sloane (Nat. Hist. Jamaica,II, p. 297, •725) says,under "The SmallMaccaw" (" The Great Maccaw,"is ,4. ararauna): "They are very commonin the woods, and are eaten as Pigeons,but whenyoung are tamed and kept as Parrots." • Birds W. I., p. •7 8. 2 The youngof ,4. tricolorappears to have beenlargely green. a I have not given all the referencesunder the specieslisted above,but only suchas seemedmost important. 348 CLARK,The Greater Anlillean •lfacaws. LOct.[-Au l, On Cuba this bird survived until very recent years, its last stronghold being the extensive swamps in the southern part of the island. We find in Brisson (Orn. IV, p. •83, •76o, under "L'Ara Rouge"): "Macawswere formerlyvt•ry commonin Santo Do- mingo. I see from a letter of M. le Chevalier Deshayesthat since the French settlements have been extended to the tops of the mountains, these birds have become less common." He quotesM. de le Borde,M•d4cin du Roi at Cayenne: "In all these islands(Antilles) the Macawshave becomevery rare, becausethe inhabitantsdestroy them for food. They retire into the lessfre- quented districts, and do not come near the cultivated areas." Brisson'sis the only evidenceI can find of any Macawshaving lived in the island of Haiti; but the statement appears to be authoritative,and he speaksof the bird evenat that time (W6o) as rare. I therefore proposethe followingas probablythe true original statusfor the genus•4ra in the West Indies. Ara tricolor (2•echst.). CUBAN MACAW. HAmrAT. Jamaica• (extinct); Cuba, includingIsl• of Pines (recentlyextinct); Haiti • (extinct). Ara guadeloupensis Clark? LESSER ANTILLEAN MACAW. HABITAT. Guadeloupe(extinct); ?Dominica • (extinct);Marti- nique• (extinct). Possiblya closelyrelated species or subspecies. •Auk, XXII, p. 272, July, •9e5. .
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