PARROTS. 189 



nary conformity in colouring, still further pointed 

 out the affinity ; and I was at length confirmed in 

 my conjectures respecting the situation of these 

 birds, by arriving at a knowledge of their habits 

 being actually those of the true Woodpeckers, 

 and of their chief affinity being to that group. 

 The regular gradation by which these two fami- 

 lies, united in their general characters, and those 

 the characters, it must be remembered, most 

 prominent and typical in their own tribe, are also 

 united in their minuter points of formation, ap- 

 pears to me now eminently conspicuous." 



Respecting the minuter points alluded to, Mr. 

 Vigors remarks that some of the Psittacida, among 

 which he par ti^/ arises the Ring-necked Par- 

 roquets of India '(Palceornis), partially employ the 

 tail in supporting themselves as they climb, in a 

 manner corresponding to that of the Woodpeckers. 

 The tongue, also, peculiar to the Parrots, as he 

 observes, becomes slenderer, and as is said, 

 more extensible in that group of which Psittacus 

 aterrimust GMEL., is the representative ; thus 

 evincing an approximation, slight indeed, but 

 still an approximation, to that of the Wood- 

 peckers.* 



The technical characters by which the Psitta- 

 cidce are distinguished may be briefly summed 

 up as follows : The beak is very short, the upper 

 mandible greatly curved downward at the tip, and 

 overhanging the lower, which is much shorter, 

 and, as it were, abruptly cut off at the extremity : 

 the upper mandible is moveable : its base is enve- 

 loped in a cere, in which the nostrils are pierced. 

 The tongue is thick, fleshy, and undivided. The 



* Linn. Trans., vol. xiv. 



