174 LECTURE Y. 



shape of a Parrot's bill, and that the feet are 

 formed for climbing, or are, in the Linnasan 

 phrase, scansorial, that is, with two of the toes 

 forwards, and two backwards. Every one how- 

 ever may not have observed that in a Parrot's 

 bill the upper mandible is moveable as well as 

 the lower; a very rare particularity in animals; 

 and that the tongue, in most species, is thick 

 and fleshy : in some however, and particularly 

 in some which are natives of New Holland, the 

 tongue is tipped by a fringe of white cartilagi- 

 nous fibres. 



So very numerous is this splendid genus, that 

 the species already described in the works of 

 authors amount to more than 170, and new ones 

 are frequently added to the list, particularly from 

 the regions of Australasia or New Holland, and 

 from the Indian islands. The whole genus, for the 

 convenience of investigation, is divided into the 

 long and short-tailed kinds : the long-tailed kinds 

 are remarkable for having the two middle feathers 

 of the tail longest, the rest shortening. gradually 

 on each side, so that the shape of the tail is 

 more or less lanced or sharpened in the dif- 

 ferent species. On the contrary, in the short- 



