Psittacus vinaceus, Pr. Wd.

Vinaceous Amazon (Ger., Weinrothe Amazone, Taubenhals-Amazone, rotihschnabeliger Kurzflugelpapagei; Fr, Perroquet Amazone d couleur de vin, Amazone d bec couleur de sang; Dut., Roodbeh Amazone Papegaai) - Natural History - Capacity as Talkers.

Although this species was known to Brisson (1760), yet it was first described with exactness by Prince Max von Neuwied (1820). The Vinaceous Amazon, as this bird is usually called in the trade, is very beautiful in plumage. The edge of the forehead and lores are blood-red; the forehead is dark-green; the cheeks yellowish olive-green; the head and upper part of the back dark grass-green, each feather with a narrow blackish border; the back of the neck bluish-lilac, each feather tipped with black; the central spot of the wing scarlet (the primaries are broad, and red on both webs); the outer feathers of the tail scarlet on both webs : the whole of the upper part of the body dark grass-green; the throat is marked with a scarlet spot (which, however, is sometimes wanting); the breast and belly are of a dark wine-red (sometimes this extends even over the hinder parts of the body); the thigh and lower coverts of the tail yellowish-green; the beak either a light or a deep blood-red, the point greyish-white; the lower mandible reddish-grey; the cere greenish or brownish-grey; the eyes brown, inclining to orange-red; eye cere greenish or brownish-grey; feet bluish-white; claws horn-grey. About the size of a crow (length, 13 3/8in.; wings, 7 1/2in. to 8 1/4in.; tail, 4 1/4 in. to 4 3/8in.). It is a native of Southern Brazil and Paraguay.

Prince von Wied, Natterer, Azara, and Burmeister have written of this bird, and from their accounts we gather that this species does not differ in its habits from the others. Mr. Petermann, who has also observed them in their native country, met with them several times in large, noisy swarms in the tall, dense, primeval forests on the coast of St. Katherine, and has also frequently kept them in cages. When excited they erect the feathers on the back of the neck, and, so Mr. Petermann writes, "their orange-red eyes gleam with uncontrollable defiance; yet they are not wicked, but gentle, and even old ones, which have been lamed by a shot in flight, soon become tame. In captivity they are extremely quiet, but cunning and teachable; yet they learn comparatively little, and do not even speak distinctly. They must, in this respect, take secondary rank among the Amazons."