334 THE FEATHERED TH1KE8. 



who watches a parrot taking its food or using the bill as a third extremity to assist it in 

 climbing about its cage. In most birds there is a jjrogressive increase in the number of 

 the phalanges of the toes ; thus the great toe has two, the next three, the middle toe four, 

 and the outer toe five. The parrots possess a peculiar cross-bone belonging to the great 

 toe. In common with the pigeon and some other birds, they are destitute of a gall 

 bladder. Their intestines are very long, and are without circa. The soft thick tongue, 

 so characteristic of this tribe, must be a highly sensitive organ of taste. It is covered 

 with papilla.', and moistened with a salivary secretion, so that they are able to taste and 

 select different articles of food. In some of the forms, the Trichoglossi, for instance, 

 which feed on the nectar of flowers, the brush-like tongue is fringed with tubular 

 processes, in conformity with the suctorial mode of feeding adopted by those birds. One 

 of them, kept by Mr. Caley, on seeing the coloiired drawing of a plant, made an attempt 

 to suck the flowers, and evinced the same disposition towards a piece of cotton furniture. 

 The accurate observer last mentioned supplied the FviftacKv Ptisilla^, Lath., a species of 

 the same genus, with honey and moistened sugar, which it sucked with ease and apparent 

 pleasure, by means of its brusli-like tongue. In the IMuseum of the College of Surgeons 

 there is one of these tubular tongues described as the tongue of a lory.* The tongue is 

 short, thick, and fleshy, as in most of the parrot tribe ; but it is further distinguished as 

 terminating in a number of verj^ delicate and close-set filaments, which can be protruded 

 and expanded like a brush. 



The large, hard, and solid bill, rounded throughout, and surrovmded at its base with a 

 membrane wherein the nostrils are pierced, together with the thick, fleshy, and rounded 

 tongue, gives the Psittacidtc, as Cuvier observes, the greatest facility in imitating the 

 human voice, a facility to which the complicated lower larynx, with its three peculiar 

 muscles on each side, contributes. Their strong mandibles, formed for shelling and 

 cracking the hardest fruits, are worked by more numerous muscles than those of other 

 birds. 



The eyes of the parrots are moderately large, and situated laterally. Tlie upper and 

 lower lids form a rounded orifice, edged with small tubercles supporting the lashes in its 

 entire circumference. The upper is evidently mobile ; the third Hd, or nictitating mem- 

 brane, is very small, and the parrots are never seen to make use of it. The pupil is 

 roimd, and not situated exactly at the centre of the iris, but more inward ; so that the 

 iris is a little broader at its external than its internal side. The colour of this last varies 

 according to the species, "but it is generally remarked to grow deeper with increasing age. 

 A peculiar character of the parrots is the ability of contracting the pupil, more or less, 

 independently of the action of the light, when they turn tlieir attention to any objecf, 

 when they feel any fear or anger, or even when tliey are in a sportive mood. These birds 

 are evidently diurnal. 



In certain 1)irds of this genus, the cheeks are naked of feathers, and covered with a 

 white farinaceous jjowder, as is remarked in the maccaws ; or the skin is coloured, as 

 in the Microjlo'mi. The circumference round the eye in others is more or less divested 

 of feathers, and also covered with a white sort of farina. This appears to be an epider- 

 mic production, and is very abundant on other parts of Ihe .skin of these birds, wlio.sc 

 plumage, when they .shake it, gives out a considerable quantity of white dust. The 

 quantity of mealy dust discharged from the skin by the cockatoos, and other species of 

 parrots, particularly al pairing time, is remarkable ; though tlie separation of this peculiar 

 matter fiom tlie skin is not confined to this family, but is eU'ecled by many birds of 

 different orders, eagles and herons for instance. The cockatoos and others ha\e the 

 head ornamented with long and slender j)lumes, which can be elevated in the form of a 



* I.oriKs ])(iiiiic'llii. — Vi^fois. 



