HIGH SCHOOL ZOOLOGY. 



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to each other. Among the vultures those of the New Worltl {Cathartidce) 

 resemble those of the 0)d World ( Vulturidai) in the absence of feathers 

 about the head, but differ in the structure of the bill, and in their habit 

 of feeding on carrion. The Falconidfe, on the other hand, have a feath- 

 ered head, shorter bill, and include the various buzzards, eagles, hawks, 

 falcons and the ospreys. 



25. A large series of very different forms used to be associated as the 

 "scansorial birds " on account of their possession of "climbing" feet, but 

 it is now recognized that they ought to be grouped under several orders. 

 One of the most singular of them is that of the Psittaci or parrots, which 

 are marked by the upper bill being shorter than it is high, strongly 

 curved, movably articulated to the skull, and with a cere surrounding 

 the nostrils. The lower bill, on the other hand, is short and truncated, 

 and the tongue fleshy. This is essentially a tropical group, chiefly de- 

 veloped in South America and the Australian region . It embraces tho 

 cockatoo, macaws, parrots, and ground-parrots. Associated with the 

 cuckoo under the ordinal name Coccyges, are a number of forms with 

 the foot more or less adapted for climbing, and with a long bill, but 

 forming, on the whole, a somewhat heterogeneous group. The Toucans 

 of S. America with their gigantic bills, the Rhinoceros birds, with the 

 singular horny process on theirs, the Cuckoos, Motmots, Kingfishers 

 and Hoopoos belong to this order. The Pici are a more homogeneous 

 order, embracing the Woodpeckers and Wrynecks ; the toes which are 

 turned forward are connected at the base, and the bill is sharp and 

 chisel-like. Finally, the Macroctiires receive their ordinal name from 

 the length of the hand, "which is longer than the fore-arm, and that 

 longer than the humerus. They are good fliers, and embrace the Goat- 

 suckers, Swifts and Humming-birds. 



ro. More than half of the species of Birds belong to the last order, 

 Passeres, in which the biU is differently shaped but always without a cere ; 

 in accordance with their " perching" habits the hinder toe is longer and 

 stronger than the second toe ; both the outer toes are comiected at the 

 base. They fall into two sub-orders, the Clamatores, which embrace the 

 forms destitute of a syrinx such as the Flycatchers, and the Oscines 

 or singing-birds, which include the Larks, CroM's, Jays and Magpies, 

 the Blaekbirds, Orioles, Finches, Sparrows, Tauagers, Swallows, Shrikes, 

 Creepers, Warblers, Wagtails, Wrens, Nuthatches, Tits, Thrushes and 

 Bluebirds, 



