

348 SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY 



remarkable powers of imitating human speech and various 

 other sounds is familiar to every one. Different kinds of par- 

 rots have received various popular names, such as the owl 

 parrots, the cockatoos, the parrakeets, the lories, the little love 

 birds, and the large macaws. 



Suborder 6. Striges 



The Striges (Lat. sirix, owl), or owls, are sometimes included 

 with the Accipitres and called the nocturnal birds of prey. They 

 have eyes and ears remarkably well developed, and the eyes are 

 surrounded by rather stiff, radiating feathers, which give them 

 their characteristic appearance ; the eyes look almost directly 

 forward. The owls (Fig. 344) are very useful because of the 

 large number of rats, mice, and other animals objectionable to 

 man which they destroy. They are widely distributed over the 

 globe, and some live in extremely cold countries. 



Suborder 7. Picariae 



The Picariae (Lat. picus, woodpecker) constitute a heteroge- 

 neous collection of birds having their principal habitat in the 

 tropics, although some are found in temperate zones as well. 

 We can simply mention some of the more familiar members of 

 the group, such as the plantain eaters, the cuckoos, the goat- 

 suckers, the whip-poor-wills or nighthawks, the rollers, the bee- 

 eaters, the kingfishers, the hornbills, the toucans, with their 

 huge beaks, the woodpeckers, the trogons, the swifts, and the 

 humming birds. There are some four hundred species of the 

 humming birds, and they arc confined to the western hemi- 

 sphere; most of them occur in Central and South America, but 

 a few extend as far north as Canada. 



Order 2. Schizognathae 

 (Gr. (TYufn-, cleave, and yvd0o$, jaw) 



Suborder 1. Pygopodes 



The Pygopodes (Gr. 7rvyij, rump, and 7rois\ foot ) are swimming 

 birds with webbed feet. They include the grebes, which are to a 



