306 



Paroquets a trompe, fuill. 



Whicli possess characters sufficiently well marked to be taken from the 

 others. Their short, square tail, and their tuft composed of long and 

 narrow feathers, assimilate them to the Cockatoos. Their cheeks are 

 naked as in the Ara, but their enormous upper mandible, and the very 

 short lower one, which cannot be made to close completely, their cylindri- 

 cal tongue, terminated by a small horny knob, split at the apex, and sus- 

 ceptible of being greatly protruded beyond the bill, their legs, naked a 

 little above the heel, and finally, their short and flat tarsi on which they 

 often rest in walking, distinguish them from all other Parrots. But two 

 species are known, both natives of the East Indies*. A subgenus might 

 also perhaps be made of the 



Pezoporus, Ulig. — Perruches, Ingambes, Vaill. 



Which have a weaker bill, more elevated tarsi, and straighter nails than 

 the other Parrots. They walk about on the ground, and seek their food 

 among the grassf. 



There are two African birds, closely allied to each other, and generally 

 placed among the Scansoriae, which appear to me to have some analogy 

 with the Gallinacese, and especially with the Hoccos, 



They have the tail and wings of the Hoccos, and, like them, perch on 

 trees ; the bill is short, and the upper mandible gibbous ; there is a short 

 membrane between the fore-toes, but the external one, it is true, is often 

 directed backwards like that of the Uhilas. Their nostrils, also, are simply 

 pierced in the horn of the bill, the edges of the mandibles are dentated, 

 and the sternum (at least that of the Touraco) has not those large emar- 

 ginations so common in the Gallinaceas. There are two genera of these 

 birds: the first is, 



CORYTHAIX]:, Illig. 



Or the Touracos, in which the bill does not mount on the forehead, anii 



the head is furnished with an erectile tuft. The most common species, 



Cuculus persa, L. ; Enl. 601; Vaill., Prom., &c., 16 and 17, is 



found in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a beautiful 



green, with part of the quills of the wings crimson. It builds in 



hollow trees, and feeds on fruit jj. The second is the 



• Psiftacus aterrhnns, Gm., or Ps. gisns, Lath., Edw. 316; — Ps. goliath, Kuhl, or 

 rAra nr,ir a trompe, Vaill. per I, pi. xii and xiii; — L'Jra gris a trompe, Id. lb. pi. 

 ii, is perhaps a variety of the same. The name of trompe is not exactly coiTect. 

 The tongue is not hollow, and in fact all that can be properly styled tongue, is the 

 little horny piece which invests the extremity of the cylinder. See Geoff. Saint Hill, 

 Ap. VI, Gal. 4. 



From this subdivision M. Vieillot has made his genus Microglossu.", Galer. 

 pi. 1. 



f Ps. formosus, Vaill. I, 32; Sh. Misc. 228;— P*. Nora-Zelandiee, Lath., Mus. 

 Carls. 28; — Ps. cornutus, Lath., Syn. Supp. Ill, pi. viii. 



X Vieillot has changed this name into Op^Thus. 



II Add the Touraco-giant, Vieill. Prom, and Guep. pi. 19;— the Touraco Pauline, 



