AYES. 441 



t Bill cerigervus at the base. 



Family XX. Psittacince. Bill thick, strong, high, moderate or 

 shorter than head, with upper mandible hooked, the lower shorter, 

 obtuse. Nostrils placed at the base of mandible near the culmen, 

 rounded, mostly small. Tarsi reticulate with small scales, mostly 

 short, thick. Two anterior toes conjoined by membrane at the 

 base. Wings moderate or somewhat long, mostly with second quill 

 longest of all. 



Compare F. LEVAILLANT Histoire natureUe des Perroquets, u Tomes. 

 Paris, 1801, 1805, folio; with many coloured plates. Afterwards a third 

 part appeared as supplement, by BoURJOT SAlNT-HiLAiEE, Paris, 1838. 

 H. KUHL Conspectus psittacorum, cum Tab. 3 seneis pictis, Nov. Act. 

 Acad. Leop. Car. Tom. x. 1821, pp. i 104; WAGLEB Monograpkia 

 Psittacorum, Abkandl. der Konigl. Bayerischen ATcademie der Wissensch. I. 

 1832. Mathem. physik. Klasse, a. 463 750, cum Tab. 22 27; EDW. 

 LEAR Illustrations of the family of the Psittacidte, London, 1832, fol. ; 

 PRIDEAUX J. SELBY The Natural History of Parrots, illustrated by 32 Plates. 

 Edinburgh, 1836 (Naturalist's Library, Vol. XV.) &c. 



The Parrots. These birds, of which nearly three hundred species 

 are now known (Lmx^EUS in 1766 numbered only forty-seven), 

 are dispersed principally in the Southern hemisphere, in America, 

 in the islands of the Indian Ocean, and in New Holland. They 

 mostly make their nest in hollow trunks of trees. In the North- 

 ern hemisphere Psittacus carolinensis is observed up to the 42 

 N. L. Africa possesses only very few species. The parrots form a 

 very natural group. The cranium is large with a transverse inci- 

 sure behind the base of the bill where the movement of the upper 

 jaw occurs. The short neck has usually twelve vertebrae. The 

 sternum is long and narrow, and has mostly on the inferior margin, 

 at each side, an oval aperture. The furcula is thin (comp. above 

 p. 330). The tongue is commonly thick and fleshy. Many species 

 learn to imitate the human voice. They climb, holding fast by the 

 bill ; with one of their feet they seize the food in order to carry it 

 to the bill. Many species have very lively colours, but the colours 

 are often gaudy and hard, and hence afford less satisfaction to the 

 eye than the more harmonious colours of birds which are not so 

 splendid ; metallic reflections, like those in the gallinaceous birds, 

 are not seen here. Although many arrangements of the parrots 

 have been proposed, yet all the species compose such an indepen- 

 dent and natural group, that only few of these divisions can be 

 regarded as sub-genera, and scarcely any as genera. There is no 



