INTRODUCTION. XXV 



Highly scansorial ; tail of twelve rigid acuminate feathers, whereof the 

 outer pair are short and spurious, concealed between bases of next two 

 pairs. Bill stout, straight, with the tip truncate or acute, not decurved, 

 — an efficient chisel for hammering and boring wood. Tongue vermi- 

 form, extensile,' and barbed. Salivary glands large ; hyoidean apparatus 

 peculiar. Nasal tufts usually present. Arboreal. (Woodpeckers.) . Picidce. 

 Feet neither syndactyle nor zygodactyle. 



Feet semipalmate, of normal ratio of phalanges. Anterior toes con- 

 nected at base by movable webbing. Hind toe very small, elevated, 

 semilateral. Middle toe produced, its large claw pectinate. Bill fissi- 

 rostral, with very small, triangular, depressed horny part and immense 

 rictus, reaching below the eyes, furnislied with bristles. Rather large. 

 Plumage soft and lax, much variegated ..... Caprimulgidce. 



Feet scarcely or not semipalmate, of frequently abnormal ratio of pha- 

 langes (middle or outer toe, or both, with fewer joints than usual among 

 birds). Hallux very small, elevated, frequently lateral or versatile. 

 Middle toe not produced nor its claw pectinate. Bill much as in the 

 last, but rictus unbristled. Small. Plumage compact, of few simple 

 subdued colors Cypselidce. 



Family of PSITTACI. 



To characters of Psittaci add: Cere feathered, concealing the nostrils. Feet 

 granular, rugose. Wings pointed. Tail cuneate. Plumage coarse and dry. 

 Head feathered. Colors green, with yellow and blue .... PsittacidcB? 



Analysis of Families of RAPTORES. 



Feet highly raptorial, with large, strong, sharp, curved, contractile claws, 

 adapted for grasping. Hallux perfectly incumbent, lengthened (more than half as 

 long as the fourth toe), with large claw. Front toes with slight basal webbing 

 between outer or middle ones, or none; outer toe often reversible. Nostrils im- 

 perforate. Bill short, stout, not notably contracted in its continuity, with 

 strongly hooked tip ; tomia often once-twice toothed or lobed. Head feathered 

 wholly or in greatest part. Lower larynx developed with one pair of muscles. 

 Plumage with or without after-shafts. Coeca present, as a rule, if not always. 

 Physiognomy peculiar by reason of great lateral expansion and lengthwise 

 shortening of the cranium, causing the eyes to be directed forward. Eyes 

 surrounded by a disc of radiating bristly feathers, in front closely appressed 

 to and hiding the base of the bill, elsewhere bounded by a rim of differently 

 formed feathers. Tomia never toothed or lobed. Nostrils usually at the edge 

 of the cere. Outer toe completely versatile, shorter than the inner toe. Basal 

 phalanx of middle toe not longer than the second, and much shorter than the 

 next. Legs commonly feathered or bristly to or on the toes. Plumage 

 peculiarly soft and lax, without after-shafts ; flight perfectly noiseless. Cra- 

 nial walls widely separated by intervention of spongy diploe. Sternum 



commonly doubly notched. Chiefly nocturnal Stn'gidce. 



Physiognomy not peculiar in any lateral expansion of the cranium; the 

 eyes lateral in direction. No complete facial disc; base of bill not hidden by 



1 Excepting Sphyrapicus, in which the tongue is not more protrusible than in ordinary birds. 



2 Our species falls i-atlier in a restricted family Arida', as distinguished from Psittacidoe proper. 



