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.
Habitat: Formerly Cuba and Isle of Pines. { 52}
_Yellow-headed Macaw_ Gosse, Birds of Jamaica, p. 260 (1847).
_Ara gossei_ Rothsch., Bull. B.O.C., XVI, p. 14 (1905); Proc. IV, Orn. Congr., p. 201 (1907).
_Ara tricolor_ (non Bechstein) Clark, Auk 1905, p. 348.
Mr. Gosse's description is as follows:--"Basal half of upper mandible black; apical half, ash coloured; lower mandible, black, tip only ash coloured; forehead, crown, and back of neck, bright yellow; sides of face, around eyes, anterior and lateral parts of the neck, and back, a fine scarlet; wing coverts and breast deep sanguine red; winglet and primaries an elegant light blue. The legs and feet are said to have been black; the tail, red and yellow intermixed (Rob.)"
Mr. Gosse also remarks, "If this is not the _tricolor_ of Le Vaillant, which is the only Macaw I am aware of marked with a yellow nape, it is probably new."
In spite of the evident differences in the description, the Jamaican _Ara_ has always been united with the Cuban _A. tricolor_, even as lately as October, 1905, by Mr. Austin H. Clark (Auk, 1905, p. 348), though he queries it in a footnote. The specimen described by Dr. Robinson, here quoted by Gosse, was shot about 1765, by Mr. Odell, in the mountains of Hanover parish, about ten miles east of Lucea.
The specimen described no longer exists, and there are none in any collection known.
There was a third member of the _tricolor_ group of Macaws found on the large island of Haiti, which Mr. Clark has also united under _A. tricolor_, but I believe it must have been different, just as the Jamaica bird. { 53}
_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).