Australian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society. 279 
inferiori brevi profundé emarginata, apice quadrato, myxá 
convexà glabra. DE du du 
Ale rotundatæ ; remige prima secundá breviori, quintæ præci- 
pue æquali ; secunda et tertià longissimis: omnium, prima 
exceptà, pogoniis externis abrupte medium versüs emar- 
ginatis. ! 
Cauda lata, depressa, subrotundata aut subgradata ; ; rectricibus 
apice subrotundis. — X 
Pedes; tarsis elevatis; digitis gracilibus, elongatis; unguibus 
longis, parum falcatis. 
The chief difference between the typical species of this genus 
and those of the preceding, lies in the roundness and compara- 
tive shortness of the wing, and the elevation of the tarsi of the 
former. Other more minute distinctions may be also detected 
sufficient to separate the groups; such as the more rounded 
culmen of the bill of Platycercus, the breadth and depression of 
the tail; the abrupt emargination of. the webs of the quill- 
feathers, &c.: but the former characters of the wings and farsi 
are the most decisive, as indicating the greater developement 
of the characters of these neighbouring groups. "These charac- 
ters at once point out the terrestrial habits of Platycercus. And 
they not only show that the food of the birds of that genus is 
found upon the ground, but they evince their superior activity 
and greater freedom of action, when compared with the remain- 
ing groups of the family, whose gait is awkward and embar- 
rassed, and who seem to possess no powers of motion on the 
ground. ‘The species enumerated in this genus accord in gene- 
ral with the above characters taken from P/. Pennantii, which 
may be considered the type; with the exception of PI. scapula- 
tus, or King's Parrot, which exhibits some slight deviation from 
the characters of the bill. This difference, however, is not of 
sufficient 
