1 86 SCANSORES. PSITTACID.E. 



Passerince, and the rest of the yoke-footed genera 

 without exception, they have absolutely nothing 

 in common with the other Zygodactyli [or Scan- 

 sores] that should entitle them to range in the 

 same special division : their whole structure is 

 widely at variance, and if there be one group 

 more than another to which they manifest any 

 particular affinity, it is that of the Diurnal Birds 

 of Prey, which, we conceive, should range next 

 to them, though still very distantly allied. They 

 certainly accord with the Falcons more than with 

 any other bird in the contour of the beak, and 

 the nostrils are analogously pierced in a mem- 

 brane termed the cere : they have a similar en- 

 largement of the oesophagus [or gullet], which 

 occurs in no other zygodactyle bird, but which 

 is glandular as in the Pigeons, secreting a lacteal 

 substance with which the young are at first nou- 

 rished ; the Parrots and Pigeons being almost the 

 only birds which subsist exclusively on vegetable 

 diet at all ages." * 



On the other hand, most naturalists, in their 

 systematic arrangements, and even many of those 

 who argue for a different position and rank, agree 

 to retain these birds in the situation and relation- 

 ship in which they were placed by Linnaeus, 

 viz., in immediate proximity to the Toucans and 

 Woodpeckers. And, in defence of this arrange- 

 ment, we will refer to the interesting observations 

 of Mr. Vigors, whose perceptions of the affinities 

 of birds have perhaps never been surpassed. 

 That ornithologist, while he places the Parrots 

 next to the Toucans, and concurs in the general 

 views which bring these birds into neighbouring 



* Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. (Lond. 1840), p. 218. 



