page_title: Guadeloupe amazon
section_title: The "violet macaw"
hierarchical_section_title: Guadeloupe amazon / Taxonomy / The "violet macaw"
caption_attribution_description: English: "Anodorhynchus purpurascens", named by Rothschild based on old accounts. Français&#160;: Anodorhynchus purpurascens (Ara des Antilles)
context_page_description: The Guadeloupe amazon or Guadeloupe parrot is a hypothetical extinct species of parrot that is thought to have been endemic to the Lesser Antillean island region of Guadeloupe. Mentioned and described by 17th and 18th century writers, it received a scientific name in 1789. It was moved to the genus Amazona in 1905, and is thought to have been related to, or possibly the same as, the extant imperial amazon. A tibiotarsus and an ulna bone from the island of Marie-Galante may belong to the Guadeloupe amazon. In 1905, a species of extinct violet macaw was also claimed to have lived on Guadeloupe, but in 2015 it was suggested to have been based on a description of the Guadeloupe amazon.
  According to contemporary descriptions, the head, neck and underparts of the Guadeloupe amazon were mainly violet or slate in colour, mixed with green and black, the back was brownish green, and the wings were green, yellow and red. It had iridescent feathers, and was able to raise a "ruff" of feathers around its neck. The bird fed on fruits and nuts, and the male and female took turns sitting on the nest. It was eaten by French settlers, who also destroyed its habitat.
context_section_description: In 1905, the British banker and zoologist Walter Rothschild named Anodorhynchus purpurascens, based on an old description of a deep violet parrot seen on Guadeloupe, found in an 1838 publication by a "Don de Navaret". He interpreted it as an extinct Anodorhynchus macaw due to its entirely blue colouration, and said the native Caribs called it "onécouli". Greenway suggested this "mythical macaw" may have been based on a careless description of the Guadeloupe amazon, or possibly an imported Lear's macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) from South America. He was unable to check the reference given by Rothschild, but suggested it may have been a publication by the Spanish historian Martín Fernández de Navarrete. In 2000, the English writer Errol Fuller suggested the bird may have been an imported hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus). In 2001, Williams and Steadman were also unable to find the reference listed by Rothschild, and concluded that the supposed species required further corroboration. James W. Wiley and Guy M. Kirwan were also unable to find the reference to the violet macaw in 2013, but pointed out an account by the Italian writer Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, who described how the Spanish took parrots that were mainly purple from Guadeloupe during the second voyage of Christopher Columbus.
  In 2015, Lenoble reviewed overlooked historical Spanish and French texts, and identified the sources on which Rothschild had based the violet macaw. An 1828 publication by de Navarrete mentioned parrots on Guadeloupe during the second voyage of Columbus, but did not state their colour or include the term "onécouli". Lenoble instead pointed to a Carib-French dictionary by the French missionary Raymond Breton (who was on Guadeloupe from 1635 to 1654) which included terms for parrots, and the passage "onicoali is the Guadeloupe variety, which differs from the others being larger and violet, with red-lined wings". Lenoble concluded that this referred to the Guadeloupe amazon since Breton appears to have reserved the word parrot for birds smaller than macaws, and due to the consistent plumage pattern mentioned. Lenoble recognised all the elements of Rothschild's description in Breton's text, but suggested that Rothschild must have relied on a secondary source since he spelled the name differently. This source appears to have been a footnote in an 1866 article, which quoted Breton, but gave an incorrect citation. It used a francised version of the bird's name, and implied it could have been a macaw. Lenoble therefore concluded that the supposed "violet macaw" was based on misidentified references to the Guadeloupe amazon, and that the Lesser Antillean macaw was the only macaw species that lived on Guadeloupe.
caption: 1907 illustration of the "violet macaw" by Keulemans
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