Vol.1908XXV'I J CL•,Rlr,The Macaw o/ Dominic(t. 309 escaped. I foundthe birdswith oneexception fat and in excellent condition,but was disappointedto find the stomachsempty; in only three casesI fouud slighttraces of vegetablematter. The birdshad notfed sincethey strayed into the NiagaraRiver. The weightsvaried from 11 lb. 15oz. to 18 lb. 10 oz.; a fourth werebirds of lessthan a year old, the remainderwere fully white,and some mustbe veryold birds. Mr. P. A. Tavernersecured drawings of all thevariations in thebeaks. The tediouswork of makingup so many skinswas safelyaccomplished by Mr. H. H. Mitchell and assistants.

THE MACAW OF DOMINICA.

BY AUSTIN HOBART CLARK•

United StatesBureau of Fisheries.

So•IE time ago I published• an accountof the Macawswhich at onetime inhabited the LesserAntillean Islands of Guadeloupeand Martinique,and possiblyDomlnica, though I was unableto find a definite record of their occurrence in the last named. Mr. Walter Rothschild,who has recentlypublished a magnificent work on the extiuct birds of the world, was also unable to state definitelythat a macawhad at any time been a residentof that island. Throughthe kindnessof Mr. J. H. Riley of the U.S. National Museum,who gave me thereference to the work,I am nowenabled to removethe queryfrom my previousrecord of a macawfrom Dominica. In a bookby ThomasAtwood, dated 1791 • I find the

• The Lesser Antillean Macaws; Auk, Vol. XXII, No. 3, pp. 266-273, July, 1905. • The I History I of the I Island of Dominica./Containing ] a description of its situation, extent, ] climate, mountains, rivers, I natural productions &c. &c. ] to- gether with I tin account of the civil government, trade, laws I customs, and manners of the different inha- I bitants of that Island, its conquest [ by the French, and restoratio• to the British dominions. [ by Thomas Atwood. ] Londom [ printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul's Church-yard. [ MDCCXCI. Col. H. W. Fielden and Mr. C. B. Cory both mentim• this work, but it was •ot acces~ sible to me whe• I was working on West Indian b•rds. 310 CLAR, TheMacaw o/ Dorninica. [July[Auk following;speaking of thebirds of Dominieahe says(p. 29): "The maekawis of the parrotkind, but largerthan the commonparrot, and makesa moredisagreeable, harsh noise. They are in great plenty,as are also parrotsin this island; have both of them a delightful green and yellow plumage, with a scarlet coloured fleshy substancefrom the ears to the root of the bill, of which colouris likewisethe chieffeathers of their wingsand tail. They breedon the topsof the highesttrees, where they feed on the berries in greatnumbers together; and are easilydiscovered by their loud chatteringnoise, which at a distanceresembles human voices. The maekawscannot be taughtto articulatewords; but the parrots of this countrymay, by takingpains with themwhen caught yourg. The fleshof both is eat, but beirg very fat, it wastesin roasting, and eatsdry and insipid; for whichreason, they are chieflyused to makesoup of, whichis accountedvery nutritive." Of coursethe possibility at oncesuggests itself that the "maekaw" is only the l•rger parrot of the island,Amazonia imperialis Rich- mond,the "commonparrot" beingAmazona bouqueti (Beehstein); but in the former there is no red on the face, nor is it greenand yellow,nor are the cMeffeathers of the wingsand tail red;. more- over,it is quiteurlikely that anyoneshould confuse a macawand a parrot, while it is quite probablethat the two parrotswere con- sideredthe samespecies, a misunderstandingof the specificlimits of parrotsbeing very prevalentat the presenttime in the tropics of the New Word. There is sucha greatdifference in life between a macawand a parrot, while the parrotsof the genusAmcizo•a with which I am acquaintedin the field are in generalhabit so similar, that I am forced to the conclusionthat Atwood has con- sideredthe two parrotsas one,and takenhis descriptionfrom the morebrilliantly colored, and that his macawis a bollafide member of the genusAra; but it appearsto be differentfrom all the kalOWn membersof the genus,and may to advantagebe knownby the provisionaltame of Ara atwoodi. I take this opportunityof correctingan errorwhich appears to have bcen the cause of considerableconfusion; in an article on WestIndian parrots,1 I gavea list (p. 344) of all the speciesknown to inhabit or to have inhabited those islands; those now extinct

The West Indian Parrots; Auk, Vol. XXII, No. 4, pp. 337-344, October, 1905. Vol.1908XXV] J CLAm½,The Macaw o[ Domimca. 311 were referredto in a footnoteannouncing the fact. By a typo- graphicalerror, the referencenumber which should have followed Amazonamartinicana was placedafter Amazonabouqueti. I did not considerit necessaryto call attentionto this obviousslip in a specialnote, more particularly as nothingwas saidof the species beingextinct in the main body of the paper (p. 343) whereit is mentioned, while the na•ne martinicana is here used for the first time, provisionallyconferred upon a long extinctform. Count Salvadori,however, • in the followingyear, notes that "Mr. Clark mentionsthis species[bouqueti] as already extinct," and later 2 publishesa letterfrom Mr. A. H. Vetrill apparentlyshowing that the bird is ratherabundant at the presenttime. While it is un- fortunatethat the mistakeoccurred, I cannotquite see how sucha palpabletypographical error couldhave passed unnoticed. As a matterof fact I am happyto be ableto statethat the bird still existsin certainparts of Domlnica. CountSalvadori is not convincedby the argumentswith which I tried to showthat Amazona•:iolaceus (Gmelin) was near A. imperialisRichmond, but thrustsit backagain into the synonymy of Deroptyusaccipitrinus; Mr. Rothschildhas sinceresurrected it again,however, and I am still firmlyof the opinionthat it has nothi•g whateverto do with Deroptyus,for the reasonsI have alreadygiven. While Mr. Rothschildagrees with me on this point, I musttake strongexception to severalof the speciesof Psittaci&e he admits to the West Indian avifmma, and in this I am gladto findmyself in agreementwith suchan eminentauthority as CountSalvadori. My viewson WestIndian Psittacidmremain the sameas statedin my previouspapers. Mr. Rothschildappears to haveoverlooked my articleon the West Indian Parrakeets,for he makesno referenceto it in his bibliographynor in themain body of hiswork, nor does he mention the numerousspecies which have becomeextinct on Barbados, and severalof the otherislands, to whichI calledattention in my 'Birds of the SouthernLesser Antilles' (not mentionedby him) and in my 'ExtirpatedWest Indian Birds.'

Ibis, [8] VI, October, 1906, p. 643. Ibis, [9] I, April, 1907, p. 365.