342 AVES. 



AH this variety of size and colours can hardly authorise any 

 generic distinctions. There are only the 



Paroquets a trompe, Vaill. 



Which possess characters sufficiently well marked to claim a 

 separation from the others. Their short, square tail, and their 

 crest composed of long and narrow feathers, assimilate them to the 

 Cockatoos. Their cheeks are naked, as in the Ara, but their enor- 

 mous upper mandible, and the very short lower one, which cannot 

 be made to close, their cylindrical tongue, terminated by a small 

 horny knob, split at the apex, and susceptible of being greatly pro- 

 truded from the beak, their legs, naked a little above the heel, and 

 finally, their short and flat tarsi on which they often rest in walking, 

 distinguish them from all other Parrots. But two species are 

 known, both natives of the East Indies.(l) A subgenus might also 

 perhaps be made of the 



Pezoporus, Illig. Perruches Ingambes, Vaill. 



Which have a weaker beak, more elevated tarsi, and straighten 

 nails than the other parrots. They walk about on the ground, and 

 seek their food among the grass.(2) 



There are two African birds, closely allied to each other, 

 and generally placed among the Scansorise, which appear to 

 me to have some analogy with the Gallinacese, and especially 

 with the Hoccos. 



They have the tail and wings of the Hoccos, and like them 

 perch on trees ; the beak is short, and the upper mandible 

 gibbous ; there is a short membrane between the fore-toes, 

 but the external one, it is true, is often directed backwards 



Vaill. 66; Ps. fringillaceus, Vaill. 71, ov porphyrocephalus, Sh. Misc., 1; Ps. 

 phigy, Vaill. 64; Ps. xanthopterigius, Sp'ix, XXXIV, 12; Ps. gregarius, Sp'ix, 

 XXXIV, 3, 4. 



(1) Psittacus aterrimus, Gm., ov Ps. gigas, Lath. Edw. 316; Ps- goUath, Knh], 

 or I'Mra noir a trompe, Vaill. per. I, pi. xii and xiii; L\lra gris a trompe, Id. lb. 

 pi. ii, is perhaps a variety of the same. The name of trompe is not exactly cor- 

 rect. The tong-ue is not hollow, and in fact all that can be properly styled tong'ue 

 is the little horny piece which invests the extremity of the cylinder. See Geoff. 

 Saint-Hill. Ap. Vl, Gal. 4. 



From this subdivision M. Vieillot has made his genus Mickoglossus, Galer. 

 pl.l. 



(2) Ps. formosus, Vaill., I, 32; Sh. Misc., 228; Ps. NovseZekndise, Lath., 

 Mus. Carls., 28; Ps. comutus. Lath., Syn. Supp. Ill, pi. viii. 



