64 Vertebrata. 



tropics, the cockatoos being mostly from the East 

 Indian archipelago, the macaws from South America, 

 the common parrots from Africa and Madagascar. 

 One curious genus, Strigops, the ground parrot of 

 New Zealand, is exceptional in having no keel on its 

 sternum, and some parakeets from Australia have no 

 merrythought. They are vegetable-feeders, princi- 

 pally subsisting on fruits, but often eating honey. 

 Many species live long in confinement, and they are 

 all easily domesticated. 



35. Order 2, Cuckoos, &c. (Coccygomorphae). 

 These are usually long-beaked birds with small flat 

 tongues, having the toes arranged either permanently 

 or temporarily like those of parrots, with the outer 

 and inner turned backwards. The wings have long 

 covering feathers. Some of these birds have enor- 

 mous beaks thrice as long as the head, like the little 

 toucans of America ; in others the beaks are sur- 

 mounted with great horns, made of spongy bony 

 tissue covered with horn, as in the hornbills of the 

 Eastern tropics. Other examples of this order are 

 the cuckoos, so familiar for their peculiar note and for 

 their habit of laying eggs in the nests of other birds ; 

 the kingfishers, bee-eaters, hoopoe, rollers, &c. Some 

 are remarkable for their colours, like the plantain- 

 eaters of Africa. The tongues are hard, often bristled, 

 as in the toucans; few have much vocal power. They 

 are for the most part feeders on insects and animal 

 substances. 



36. Order 3, Woodpeckers (Pici). Mostly 

 brightly-coloured birds, with straight, strong, conical 

 beaks, and slender and actively protrusible tongues. 



