BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 103 



Order PSITTACIFORMES. 



PAKROT-LIKE BIKDS. 



=Psittacini Illiger, Prodromus Orn., 1811, 195, 200. — Fitzinger, Sitz.-b. Ak. 

 Wiss. Wieu, xxi, 1856, 279, 281. 



=[Zygodactyli] Psittacini Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 25. 



=Psittacinae Nitzsch, Obs. Av. art. carot. comm., 1829, 16; Syst. Pterylog., 

 1840, 139. 



=Psi^toa Wagler, Naturl. Syst. Amphib., 1830, 80, 82. — Bonaparte, Rev. et 

 Mag. de Zool., 1850, 475; Consp. Gen. Av., i, 1850, 1. — Garrod, Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. Lond., 1873, 465.— Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868-75, 219.— Fuer- 

 bringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1567 ("Gens" of Inter-Suborder 

 Psittaciformes). — Stejneger, Science Hecord, ii, 1884, 155. — Cope, Am. Nat., 

 xxiii, 1889, 871, 872.— Sharpe, Rev. Recent At. Classif. Birds, 1891, 83 

 (Suborder, of Order Psittaciformes); Hand-list, ii, 1900, 1. — Gadow, in 

 Bronn's Thier-Reichs, Vog., u, 1893, 216, 300; Classif. Vertebr., 1898, xv, 36 

 (Suborder of Order Cuculi!). — Beddard, Struct, and Classif. Birds, 1898, 253 

 (Order). — Knowlton, Birds of the World, 1909, 50, 454 (Suborder of Order 

 Cuculi). 



=Psittacidae Cabanis, Wiegmann's Archiv fvir Natiu'g., 1847, 348. — Lilljeborg, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1866, 16. — Fuerbringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., 

 ii, 1888, 1285.— Gadow, in Bronn's Thier-Reichs, Vog., ii, 1893, 222, 300. 



=Psittaco7norph3e Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 465. 



=Psiitacifonnes Fuerbringer, Unters. Morjih. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1567 (Inter- 

 Suborder).— Sharpe, Rev. Recent At. Classif. Birds, 1891, 83 (Order); Hand- 

 list, ii, 1900, 1. 



=Prehensores Blainville, Bull. Soc. Phil., 1816, 110; Journ. de Phys., Ixxxiii, 

 1816, 252. 



"^ Cuculiformes Gadow, Bronn's Thier-Reichs, Vog., ii, 1893, 300 (includes 

 Cuculi -l-Musophagi); Classif. Vertebr., 1893, xv, 36. — Knowlton, Birds of 

 the World, 1909, 50, 441. 



Zygodactylous birds with tlie bill hooked and furnished with a 

 cere, the rostrum freely movable by means of hinge-like articula- 

 tion with the skull; dorsal vertebras opisthoccelous ; feet prehensile, 

 perfectly adapted for grasping and climbing; expansor secundariorum 

 muscle absent; rectrices usually 12 (14 in genus Oreopsittacus) ; sec- 

 ondaries aquin to-cubital; downs very complex, covering both pteryla 

 and apteria; young ptilopsedic or semi-ptilopaedic. 



Additional characters are as follows : 



Bill relatively short and deep, strongly hooked, "raptorial" in 

 general aspect; maxilla strongly uncinate, freely articulated with 

 (not suturally joined to) the frontal bones, furnished, on upper- 

 basal portion, with a well-defined "cere" or area of soft integument 

 in which the nostrils are situated (though this is sometimes densely 

 covered with short feathers), the distal palatal surface usually finely 

 grooved, transversely or obliquely, producing a file-like corrugation; 

 symphysis of mandible broad and obtuse (often truncate), the tip 

 of mandible transversely truncafe and chisel-shaped. Tongue short, 

 usually thick and fleshy, sometimes with tip brush-like or fringed. 

 Feet permanently zygodactyle through reversion of the fourth toe 

 (which articulates by a double facet), used, together with the bill. 



