Martinique Macaw
| Martinique Macaw | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Restoration by John Gerrard Keulemans, based on Bouton's description | |
| Scientific classification (disputed) | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Psittacinae |
| Tribe: | Arini |
| Genus: | Ara |
| Species: | A. martinica |
| Binomial name | |
| Ara martinica (Rothschild, 1905) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The Martinique Macaw, Ara martinica, als known as Orange-bellied Macaw,[1] is an hypothetical extinct species of parrot that may have been native to Martinique, a French island in the eastern Caribbean Sea.[2]
Taxonomy
The species was first scientifically described and named by Walter Rothschild in 1905 (and later in his 1907 book, Extinct Birds), in the absence of a specimen and based on a brief 17th-century report from the island by Pere Bouton. Bouton described the Martinique Macaw as follows:
The macaws are two or three times as large as the other parrots, [and] have a plumage much different in colour: those that I have seen have their plumage blue and orange-yellow (saffron). They also learn to talk and have a good body.[3][4]
Rothschild initially called these parrots Anodorhynchus martinicus and later Ara martinicus. There are no remains of the parrots that lived on the island, and so the existence of a unique island species may never be proven. They could have been a feral population of parrots originating from Blue-and-yellow Macaws that were taken to the island as pets by humans.[5] No evidence other than Bouton's account is known, but a 1626 painting by Roelant Savery has been suggested to show this bird alongside a Dodo.[1]
Rothschild also named Ara erythrura (Red-tailed Blue-and-yellow Macaw or Satin Macaw[1]) in 1907, based on the following 1658 description by Charles de Rochefort:
Among them are some which have the head, the upper side of the neck, and the back of a satiny sky blue; the underside of the neck, the belly, and undersurface of the wings, yellow, and the tail entirely red.[4]
This species was supposed to have been native to Jamaica or Martinique.[6] However, James Greenway suggested Rochefort's description was dubious, as he had never visited Jamaica, and appeared to have based his account on Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre's.[6][7][8] It is considered the same as the Martinique Macaw today, if either has ever existed.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Hume, J. P.; Walters, M. (2012). Extinct Birds. A & C Black. ISBN 140815725X.
- ↑ "Species Info: Ara martinica". The Extinction Website (2008). Retrieved 5 October 2008.
- ↑ http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/martiniquemacaw.htm
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.archive.org/details/extinctbirdsatte00roth
- ↑ Fuller, Errol (1987). Extinct Birds. Penguin Books (England). pp. 148–149. ISBN 0-670-81787-2.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Species Info: Ara erythrura". The Extinction Website (2008). Retrieved 8 October 2008.
- ↑ Greenway, J. C. 1958. Extinct and vanishing birds of the world. American Committee for International Wild Life Protection 13, New York.
- ↑ Williams, M. I. & D. V. Steadman (2001): The historic and prehistoric distribution of parrots (Psittacidae) in the West Indies. Pp 175-489 in Biogeography of the West Indies: patterns and perspectives. 2nd ed. (Woods, C. A. & F. E. Sergile, eds.) Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
External links
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