GROUND PARROTS. 241 



To this family belong the Ground Parrots, the Macaws, the 

 Lories, the true Parrots, and the Cockatoos. 



Siih-Fainily I. 

 THE GROUND PARROTS. PEZOPORIN^.* 



General Characteristics. — Bill moderate, with the culmen usually rounded and 

 arched to the tip, which is sometimes dentated ; the tarsi more or less short and 

 robust ; and the tail broad, lengthened, and more or less graduated, Avith the ends 

 of the feathers nan-owed, and rounded or pointed. 



The birds composing this sub-family are mostly found in Aus- 

 tralia, where they inhabit shrubby or bushy places, and are usually 

 seen on the ground searching for the seeds of the grasses on 

 which they subsist. When disturbed, they generally seek safety 

 by a rapid flight, continued for a short distance, to the nearest 

 trees, where they remain perched till the cause of their alarm has 

 disappeared. Some species, met with most numerously in India, 

 frequent the jungles, and are often to be seen on cultivated ground 

 and in gardens, where they commit great devastation, devouring 

 various kinds of grain .and fruits. During their migrations they 

 generally keep close to* the tops of the large trees, and on dis- 

 covering food, take a short circle round the tree with a steady 

 sailing flight, and, alighting on the branches, speedily commence 

 their attack on the fruit. 



A well-known species — 



The Beautiful Ground-Parrot {Pesopoms formosus), has never been 

 known to fly into a tree, or to take shelter among the branches, so that it is un- 

 certain whether it possesses the power of perching. It usually frequents sandy 

 sterile districts covered with tufts of rank grass and herbage, or low swampy flats 

 abounding with rushes, where, from its very restless habits and great jDowers 

 of running, it is seldom seen until it is flushed, and then only for a short time, 

 as it soon alights and runs off to a place of seclusion, often under the cover of 

 the grass tree {xanthorrJi(ra), that abounds in the districts it frequents. It 

 flies near the ground with great rapidity, often making several zigzag turns in 



* ire^o-TTOpS'S, pezo-poros, a pedestrian, one who goes over ike ground on fooi. 



IG 



