:306 SCA'N SORES. 



FAMILY II. 



PsiTTACiD.E. The Parrots. 



Gen. Chakac. — Bill more or less large and strong, witli the culmen arched 

 to the tip, which is prolonged and acute, the lateral margins sometimes 

 dentated, and the base covered by a cere, of greater or less size, in which 

 the nostrils are placed ; the wings and the tail generally long ; and the tarsi 

 nsually very short and robust. 



The feet of the Parrots are furnished with two 

 toes pointing forward and two backward, and, in 

 most of the genera, are expressly formed for firm 

 prehension and climbing, evidently indicating that 

 woods and trees are the appropriate and natural 

 habitat of the race. It is accordingly in those 

 regions where the trees are clothed with perpetual 

 verdure, and where a constant and never-failing 

 succession of fruits and seeds can always be procured, 

 that the Parrots are found in the greatest numbers. 

 Thus the recesses of the interminable forests of 

 vSouth America are enlivened by the presence of the 

 superb Macaws ; those of India and its islands by 

 the elegantly-shaped and scarlet-clothed Lories ; 

 while those of Australia resound with the harsh 

 voice of the Cockatoos, and the shriller screams of 

 the long-tailed Parrakeets. In these, their natural 

 situations, their movements are marked by an ease 

 and gracefulness we can never see exhibited in a 

 state of confinement. They are represented as 

 climbing about the branches in every direction, and 

 as suspending themselves from them in every possible 

 attitude, in all which movements they are greatly 

 assisted by their hooked and powerful bill, which is 

 used both as an organ of prehension and for support. 

 The pointed and ample wing, which prevails among 

 the Parrots, indicates a corresponding power of 

 flight ; and, accordingly, we learn from those who 

 have enjoyed the enviable opportunity of seeing and 

 studying them in their native wilds, that it is rapid, 



