PARROTS. 



187 



groups, acknowledges that he is unacquainted 

 with any forms which soften down the important 

 difference between the bills and tongues of the 

 one and the other of these Families ; and declares 

 his opinion that the Psittacidte afford more dif- 

 ficulties to the inquirer than any other known 

 group in the whole Class. 



HEAD OF MACAW. 



Between the Parrots and the Woodpeckers 

 there seemed to Mr. Vigors, at first, to be an 

 equal diversity, arising from the structure of the 

 beak and tongue, but he was decided in his opi- 

 nion of their proximity, by observing that while 

 there is no other group with which the former 

 accord more closely in such characters, they pos- 

 sess an affinity to no birds but the Picidce, in the 

 structure of the foot and the use to which they 

 apply it. Of the birds commonly considered as 



