(PLATE 12.)
_Ara militaris_ Gosse, Birds of Jamaica, p. 261 (1847).
_Ara erythrocephala_ Rothsch., Bull. B.O.C., XVI, p. 14 (1905); Proc.
IV Orn. Congr., p. 201 (1907).
Gosse says the description given to him in a letter, just received from Mr.
Hill, was as follows:--"Head red; neck, shoulders, and underparts of a
light and lively green; the greater wing coverts and quills, blue; and the
tail scarlet and blue on the upper surface, with the under plumage, both of
wings and tail, a mass of intense orange yellow."
"The specimen here described was procured in the mountains of Trelawny and
St. Anne's by Mr. White, proprietor of the Oxford estate." No specimen now
known.
Habitat: Jamaica.
Mr. Gosse also relates that the Rev. Mr. Coward, in 1842, saw two large
Macaws flying near the foot of the mountains in the parish of St. James,
near the centre of the island. These birds were said to have been blue and
yellow; if so, probably they were my _Ara erythrura_, whose precise island
home is unknown.