496 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — RAPTOEES. 



28. 



PSITTACID^ : Parrots. 



All New World Parrots belong here (bua 



159 



460. 



Of this subfamily 



Family- 

 See above. Two carotids, the left superficial, 

 all Psittacidce are not of the New World). 



39. Subfamily ARIN/E: Parrots. 



See above. Auibiens muscle, tufted oil-gland aud complete furculum. 

 the Macaws (Ara) aud our species of Conuriis are characteristic. 

 CONU'RUS. (Gr. kS>vos, konos, a cone; ovpa, oura, tail; cuneate-tail.) Parroquets. 



Tail leugthened, nearly equalling wings, cuneate, with ' tapering feathers. Face entirely 

 feathered excepting a slight space about the eye. Nostrils in the feathered cere. Bill very 

 stout, with bulging lateral outline, broadly rounded culmen, and toothed or lobed commissure. 

 Tarsi very short, much less than the inner anterior toe ; outer anterior longer than outer pos- 

 terior toe. Feet granular-reticulate, becoming scutellate on the toes. Wings pointed ; in our 

 species the 2d and 3d primaries longest, the 1st and 4th subequal and shorter. A large genus 

 (if tropical America, with one U. S. species. 



C. carolinen'sis. (Lat. Carolinian. Figs. 34G, 3i7.) Carolina Parroquet. Green; head 

 yellow; face red; bill white; feet flesh-color; wings more or less variegated with blue and 

 yellow. Sexes alike. Tojoi^ simply green. Length 12.50-13.50; extent 21.00-22.50 ; wing 

 7.00-8.00 ; tail 6.00-7.00. Southern States ; up the Mississippi Valley to the Missouri region ; 

 W. to Arkansas and the Indian Territory ; recently Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, etc. ; formerly 

 ^^trayed to Pennsylvania aud New York, but of late has receded even from the Carolinas ; still 

 abundant in Florida. But it would seem that if the cruel and wanton slaughter to which the 

 gentle creatures are subjected by idlers goes on, they must before long be exterminated. Gre- 

 garious, frugivorous, and grauivorous ; not regularly migratory, but roving. Said to breed in 

 companies in hollow trees ; eggs whitish, 1.40 X 1-05, elliptical in shape, rough in texture. 



RAPTORES: Birds of 



IV. Order 



Prey. 



Bill epignathous, cered; and 

 feet not zygodactyU. The rapa- 

 cious birds (Baptores, Eaptatores 

 or Accipitres of authors, Aeto- 

 morphea of Huxley) form a fairly 

 natural assemblage, to which this 

 expression furnishes a clew. 

 (The parrots, probably the only 

 other birds with strongly hooked 

 and truly cered bill, are yoke- 

 toed.) The Baptores presen'- 

 several osteological and other an- 

 atomical characters. The ster 

 num is ample and deep keeled, 

 its posterior margin doubly or 

 singly notched or fenestrate on 

 each side, or entire with central 

 emargination ; the furculum an- 

 chylosed or not. Angle of man- 

 dible not recurved ; maxillo- 

 palatines united to an ossified 

 septum ; rostrum arched and 

 hooked; basipterygoid processes 



