Battle of Martinique (1779) Battle of Martinique (1779) The Combat de la Martinique, or Battle of Martinique, was a naval encounter on 18 December 1779 between a British squadron under Admiral Hyde Parker and a French squadron under Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte near the island of Martinique in the West Indies. In the fall of 1779, a British fleet under Admiral Hyde Parker was anchored at St. Lucia (which they had captured a year before), while a French fleet under Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte was undergoing a refit at the nearby island of Martinique in the West Indies. Parker was
Martinique macaw to refer to separate birds. The Martinique amazon ("Amazona martinicana") of the same island, was also based solely on a contemporary description. What Bouton described is likely to remain a mystery, but various theories have been proposed. In 1906, Tommaso Salvadori noted that the Martinique macaw seemed similar to the blue-and-yellow macaw ("Ara ararauna") of mainland South America, and may have been the same bird. The American ornithologist James Greenway suggested Bouton's description could have been based on a captive bird. "Edwards' Dodo", a 1626 painting by the Dutch artist Roelant Savery, shows several birds including a blue and yellow