AVES. 441 



t Bill cerigerous at the base. 



Family XX. Fsittacince. Bill thick, strong, liigli, moderate or 

 shorter than head, with upper mandible hooked, the lower shorter, 

 obtuse. Nostrils placed at the base of mandible near the culmen, 

 rounded, mostly small. Tarsi reticulate with small scales, mostly 

 short, thick. Two anterior toes conjoined by membrane at the 

 base. Wings moderate or somewhat long, mostly with second quill 

 longest of all. 



Compare F. Levaillant Eistoire natureUe des Perroqmts, ii Tomes. 

 Paris, 1801, 1805, folio; with many coloured plates. Afterwards a third 

 part appeared as supplement, by Boorjot Saint-Hilaiee, Paris, 1838. 

 H. KuHL Conspectus psittacorum, cum Tab. 3 aeneis pictis, Nov. Act, 

 Acad. Leap. Car. Tom. x. 1821, pp. i — 104; — Waglek MonograpMa 

 Psittacorum, Ahhandl. der Kbnigl. Bayerisclien Ahademie der Wissensch. i. 

 1832. Mathem. physih. Klasse, a. 463 — 750, cum Tab. 22 — 27; Edw. 

 Lear Illustrations of the family of the Psittacidce, London, 1832, fol. ; 

 Prideaux J. Selby The Natural History of Parrots, illustrated by 32 Plates. 

 Edinburgh, 1836 {Naturalist's Library, Vol. XV.) &c. 



The Parrots. — These buxis, of which nearly three hundi'ed species 

 are now known (Linn^us in 1766 numbered only forty-seven), 

 are dispersed principally in the Southern hemisphere, in America, 

 in the islands of the Indian Ocean, and in New Holland. They 

 mostly make their nest in hollow trunks of trees. In the North- 

 ern hemisphere Fsittacus carolinensis is observed up to the 42" 

 N. L. Africa possesses only very few species. The parrots form a 

 very natui^al group. The cranium is large with a transverse inci- 

 sure behind the base of the bill where the movement of the upper 

 jaw occurs. The short neck has usually twelve vertebrse. The 

 sternum is long and narrow, and has mostly on the inferior margin, 

 at each side, an oval aperture. The furcula is thin (comp. above 

 p. 330). The tongue is commonly thick and fleshy. Many species 

 learn to imitate the human voice. They climb, holding fast by the 

 bill; with one of their feet they seize the food in order to carry it 

 to the bill. Many species have very lively colours, but the colours 

 are often gaudy and hard, and hence aiford less satisfaction to the 

 eye than the more harmonious colours of bii'ds which are not so 

 splendid ; metallic reflections, like those in the gallinaceous birds, 

 are not seen here. Although many arrangements of the parrots 

 have been proposed, yet all the species compose such an indepen- 

 dent and natural group, that only few of these divisions can be 

 regarded as sub-genera, and scarcely any as genera. There is no 



