RAPTORES, BIRDS OF PREY.—GEN. 138. 199 
them into 5 families. The curious flightless ground-parrot of New Zealand (Stri- 
gops habroptilus) forms one of these, Strigopide. ‘The most highly organized 
group is the Tvichoglosside, in which the whole structure is adapted to flower- 
feeding habits” (WaxLace) ; it belongs to the Australian region. The cockatoos 
are familiar examples of a third family, Plictolophide, of Australia and the East 
Indies. The great bulk of the order, however, is made up of the other two less 
specialized and more generally distributed groups, the Psittacide proper, and the 
Family ARIDA, 
of which the macaws (Ara), and the following species, are characteristic examples. 
138. Gen. CONURUS Kuhl. 
Carolina  Parroquet. 
Green; head yellow; face 
red; bill white ; feet flesh 
color ; wings more or less 
yariegated with blue and 
yellow. Sexes alike. 
Young simply green. 13; 
wing 73; tail 6. Southern 
States ; up the Mississippi 
Valley to the Missouri 
region; formerly strayed 
to Pennsylvania and New 
York, but. of late has 
receded even from the 
Carolinas; still abundant 
in Florida. Gregarious, 
frugivorous and granivorous; not regularly migratory. WILs., iii. 89, pl. 
26, f. 1; Nurt., i, 545; Aup., iv, 306, pl. 278; Bp., 67. CAROLINENSIS. 
Fic. 133. Carolina Parroquet. 
Order RAPTORES. Birds of Prey. 
Bill epiqnathous, cered; and feet not zygodactyle. The rapacious birds form a 
perfectly natural assemblage, to which this expression furnishes a clue. The 
parrots, probably the only other birds with strongly hooked and ¢ruly-cered bill, 
are yoke-toed. The Raptores present several osteological and other anatomical 
peculiarities. There are two carotids; the syrinx, when developed, has but one 
pair of intrinsic muscles. The alimentary canal varies with the families, but 
differs from that of vegetarian birds, in adaptation to an exclusively animal diet. 
In the higher types, the whole structure betokens strength, activity and ferocity, 
carnivorous propensities and predaceous nature. Most of the smaller, or weaker, 
species feed much upon insects; others more particularly upon reptiles, and fish ; 
others upon carrion; but the majority prey upon other birds, and small mammals, 
captured in open warfare. Representatives of the order are found in every part of 
the world. They are divisible into fowr families. One of these, Gypogeranide, 
consists of the single remarkable species Gypogeranus serpentarius, the secretary- 
bird or serpent-eater of Africa; this shows a curious grallatorial analogy, being 
