Chester Zoo Game

that was a widely-stated etymology, and I expect you'd still see it in some dictionaries - the idea behind it being that the birds were traded through China and hence named after Macau for that reason (rather than a belief they actually came from there), so "Macau birds" became "Macaw birds". It was one of the etymologies I knew as a child. But it seems to be one of those etymologies which were thought up on no evidence, and then took off as a fact.

Thanks for your response which I had overlooked and only just noticed; I always thought that the link between "macaw" and "Macau" was rather tenuous.

Apologies for the digression from the Chester Zoo quiz.
 
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