Martinique Macaw
| Martinique Macaw | ||||||||||
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Reconstruction by John Gerrard Keulemans from 1907 based on Bouton's description |
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| Ara martinica | ||||||||||
| ( Rothschild , 1905) |
The Martinique Macaw ( Ara martinica ) is a hypothetical, extinct species of parrot that is believed to have been native to the French island of Martinique in the eastern Caribbean .
In 1905 Walter Rothschild wrote the first scientific description of the Martinique Macaw, which was also published in 1907 in the book Extinct Birds . In the absence of a specimen copy, Rothschild’s description is based on a short travel report by the Jesuit father Père Jacques Bouton (1591–1658), who wrote in 1640:
“The macaws are two or three times the size of other parrots and they have plumage that is very different in color. Those that I have seen had blue and orange-yellow (saffron-colored) plumage. They also learned to speak and had a good body. "
Rothschild first named these parrots Anodorhynchus martinicus and later Ara martinicus . However, since there are no remains of macaws in Martinique, the existence of this unique island species cannot be proven. Alternatively, it could be a feral population of yellow-breasted macaws that were brought to the island as pets. Apart from Bouton's contribution, there is no evidence of this species. Only one macaw, which was depicted next to a dodo in a painting by Roelant Savery in 1626, was there any speculation that this bird could be a Martinique macaw.
In 1907, Rothschild described the dubious species Ara erythrura (sometimes referred to as the yellow-blue macaw in German), which is based on the following description by the clergyman and naturalist Charles de Rochefort (1605-1883) from 1658:
“Among them were those who had a satin sky blue head, neck, and back. The underside of the neck, belly, and the underside of the wings were yellow. The tail was completely red. "
This species is said to have been native to Jamaica and Martinique. However, the ornithologist James Cowan Greenway, in his 1958 work The extinct and vanishing birds of the world , assumes that Rochefort's report is dubious, as it had never visited Jamaica. Rather, Greenway suspects that Rochefort's description is based on a contribution by Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre and that the form Ara erythrura was identical to Ara martinica , if it ever existed.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Bouton (Père Jacques). Relation de l'establissement des françois depuis l'an 1635. En l'isle de la Martinique, l'une des Antilles de l'Amérique. Des mœurs des sauvages, de la situation, & des autres singularitez de l'isle . Paris, Sebastien Cramoisy, 1640. Quoted in: Walter Rothschild: Extinct Birds . 53, 1907. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
- ↑ Errol Fuller: Extinct Birds . Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-850-837-9 , p. 233.
- ↑ a b Julian Pender Hume, Michael P. Walters: Extinct Birds . A & C Black, 2012, ISBN 140815725X , p. 399.
- ^ Rochefort, Charles C. de. Histoire Naturelle et Morale des isles Antilles de l'Amérique . Chez Arnould Reers, 1658. Quoted in: Walter Rothschild: Extinct Birds . P. 54, 1907. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
- ^ Greenway, JC 1958. Extinct and vanishing birds of the world. American Committee for International Wild Life Protection 13, New York.
- ^ Williams, MI & DV 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, CA & FE Sergile, eds.) Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.