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Show 1867.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON SOME SPECIES OF PARROTS. 183 from a sawyer, who found them in a scrub on the east coast, where he was at work, and where he observed the species moving about in small flocks of from fifteen to twenty in number, and by no means shy. 3. Notes upon some Parrots living in the Society's Menagerie. By P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. (Plate XVI.) In preparing for press a new edition of the List of Vertebrated Animals in the Society's living collection, I have made some notes upon certain species of Parrots now represented in the Society's extensive living series of these birds, which may be worthy of record. A Maccaw purchased for the Society at Liverpool on the 23rd of August last appears to be quite distinct from the Military Maccaws previously in the collection, differing materially both in its larger size and in the enormous width of the lower mandible. In these birds, therefore, it appears that we have now living side by side in the Parrot-house examples of both the species of " Military Maccaws " figured by Levaillant in his great work on Parrots, the existence of which has been so often denied. That the larger bird, with its enormously crass under mandible, is specifically different from the smaller and more common one can, I think, hardly be denied by those who have seen them both together, although there is but slight difference in the plumage, as far as I can tell from examination of the living birds. The name militaris must, I think, be reserved for the smaller of the two species CL'Ara militaire, Levaill. Perr. pl. 4), whilst the larger (Le Grand Ara militaire, Levaill. pl. 6) must be called Ara ambigua (Bechst.), Bechstein's term having been founded upon Levaillant's last-mentioned figure. The two species may be diagnosed as follows: - ARA AMRIGUA : major: rostro majore et mandibula preecipue multo magis crassa : pileo obscurius viridi et flavo variegato : ex Mexico. ARA MILITARTS : minor : rostro modico : pileo unicolore leete viridi : ex Nov. Granada: rep. iEquat. et Peruvia, inter Andes. I have no doubt that the smaller is the South American bird, as I have an example of it in m y own collection from Bogota. I conjecture, therefore, that the larger one is from Mexico, as Swainson and others have recorded the occurrence of Ara militaris in that country. Another very interesting recent addition to the Society's collection consists of two fine examples of the beautiful Green-tailed Lory of San Cristoval, Salomon Islands (Lorius chlorocercus), described by |
