38 



vary much in size, but for the most part are long-tailed and 

 strikingly colored. 



The family Psittacidce embraces the remaining species of the 

 order, including all the species of the New World, as well as a 

 large number from Africa and Australia. The members of this 

 numerous group present wide differences of form, they including 

 not only the short, square-tailed Gray Parrots of Africa and the 

 Amazons of America, but the long-tailed Macaws and numerous 

 Parrakeets, while as regards size they embrace both the largest and 

 the smallest representatives of the order. They are in general much 

 less vividly colored than the members of the preceding family, 

 green tints, varied with markings of red, yellow, blue, or white, 

 prevailing. The Carolina Parrakeet (Case B) is the only one of 

 the numerous American species reaching the United States. 

 Although formerly more or less common from the Ohio and 

 Potomac Rivers southward it is now nearly extinct, being restricted 

 to a few localities, chiefly in Florida. The New World Parrots 

 are in Case H ; the Old World Parrots in Case R. 



Order XXI, Picarice, embraces an immense number of species 

 (estimated at about 1600), usually arranged in five or six suborders 

 and in about twenty-three families. They possess very few char- 

 acters strictly in common, but certain mutual resemblances which 

 are thought to ally them more closely together than with any other 

 ordinal group. Several of the suborders, as the Woodpeckers, for 

 example, have been sometimes awarded the rank of orders. The 

 families of the Picaria may be briefly enumerated as follows : The 

 Plantain-eaters {Miisop/iagidu:) are a small group of African birds, 

 somewhat gallinaceous In aspect, with peculiar and rather striking 

 colors (see Case Q). The Cuckoos {Ciiailidce) are widely dis- 

 tributed, very numerous in species, and variable in appearance. 

 Some are arboreal, as the ordinary Cuckoos of Europe and 

 North America, while others are terrestrial, like the Road-runner 

 of our Southwestern United States (Case B) and the Ground- 

 Cuckoos of the West Indies and South America (Case H). In 

 general the colors are soft and blending, but the South African 

 Golden Cuckoos (Case Q) are richly iridescent. Some of the 

 Australian species are as large as a Crow, many others, found in 



