Martinique Macaw
| Martinique Macaw | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Painting by John Gerrard Keulemans | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| 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, is an hypothetical extinct species of parrot that may have been native to Martinique, a French island in the eastern Caribbean Sea.[1]
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 Labat:
Those of Dominica have some red feathers on the wings, under the throat, and in the tail ; all the rest is green (Amazona bouqueti, w.r.). Those of Martinique have the same plumage as the last mentioned, but the top of the head is slate colour with a small amount of red.[3]
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.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ "Species Info: Ara martinica". The Extinction Website (2008). http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/martiniquemacaw.htm. Retrieved 5 October 2008.
- ^ http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/martiniquemacaw.htm
- ^ http://www.archive.org/details/extinctbirdsatte00roth
- ^ Fuller, Errol (1987). Extinct Birds. Penguin Books (England). pp. 148–149. ISBN 0670817972.
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
This article relating to parrots is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
