LORlAiVA. 165 



India and its islands, but whose distribution does not 

 extend so far south as Australia. It is, however, pro- 

 bable that this group will require further division, 

 and that most of the genera indicated by Wagler in 

 his Monograph will hereafter be adopted. The 

 structure and comparative weakness of the bill of 

 these birds, plainly indicate that the nature of their 

 food must be different in quality from that of the 

 powerful billed Parrots, and accordingly we find, that 

 soft fruits, as well as the juices of flowers, constitute 

 their principal support. They are closely connected 

 in affinity with that group of which Psittacula Kuhlii, 

 Vigors, is a type, and with the Lorikeets or genus 

 Trichoglossus, Vigors, which occupy their place in 

 Australia and the islands of the Pacific. In the 

 breadth, and the rounded tips of their tail feathers, 

 may also be traced an approach to the broad-tails or 

 subfatnily Platycercince, with which a connexion is 

 thus sustained. In disposition they are lively, but 

 mild and tractable, and when domesticated, fond of 

 being caressed. The call-note of many of the spe- 

 cies is similar in sound to the name they usually go 

 by, and some of them learn to speak with great dis- 

 tinctness. Our first figure represents the 



