(PLATE 10.)
_Le petit Ara_ D'Aubenton, Pl. Enl. 641.
_L'Ara tricolor_ Levaill., Perr. I p. 17, pl. 5 (1801).
_Psittacus tricolor_ Bechst., Kurze Ueb. p. 64, pl. I (1811).
_Sittace? lichtensteini_ Wagl., fide Bp., Naumannia 1856, Consp. Psitt.
Bechstein's description, taken from Levaillant, is (translated) as follows:
"This _Aras_, which others have held to be only a variety of _Macao_, is
according to Vaillant a distinct species. It is one third smaller than the
red-fronted species, or 1 ft. 10 in. long, of which the tail takes 11
inches and the bill 18 lines. The latter is of a black colour and has the
upper mandible less curved, and the sides of the lower mandible more
swollen than is the case in the other _Ara_ species. The cheeks are naked
and white, with three lines of red feathers. Head, front and sides of the
neck, breast, belly and thighs red; back of the neck pale yellow; back,
shoulders and smaller wing coverts brownish red bordered with yellow or
green; flanks yellowish, primaries above dark azure blue, below coppery
red. Crissum violet blue, undertail coverts pale blue with green and
brown-red borders; under-wing coverts red, the larger yellow, and brownish
green. Two centre tail feathers all red with blue tips, the outer ones blue
on outer webs and tips, red on the rest of the feather."
Of this bird I know only of two in the British Museum, one in Paris, one in
Leyden, one in Liverpool. The specimen in the Paris Museum bears the
inscription "Macrocercus tricolor (Bechst.) M. E. Rosseau. Cuba. Ménagerie
1842." Probably, however, there are more specimens in other museums.
Apparently the last specimen was shot in 1864 at La Vega (Bangs, Americ.
Nat. XXXIX, p. 200).
Like all the extinct West Indian Macaws, Amazons and Conures, it became
extinct through its persecution by the inhabitants for food.