3^2 CUCULIFORMES 



CHAP. 



docile, and long-lived pets of gorgeous coloration and amusing 

 habits. The red-tailed Grey Parrot of Africa (Psittacus erithacus) 

 is considered the best talker, yet, apart from individual ability, 

 many species of Palaeornis, Chrysotis, and other genera, are equally 

 clever, if we cannot say intelligent. Professor Skeat identifies 

 the name Parrot with the French Pierrot; but, however that may 

 be, Indian species have been known in Europe since the time of 

 Alexander the Great, and one or more African forms were kept 

 in ornamental cages, and even eaten, at Eome under Nero. 



In default of a really satisfactory arrangement we may accept 

 that of Dr. Gadow, 1 who agrees in the main with Count 

 Salvadori, 2 and recognises the Family Psittacidae, with Sub- 

 families Stringopinae, Psittacinae, and Cacatuinae; and the Family 

 Trichoglossidae, with Cyclopsittacinae, Loriinae, and Nestorinae. 



There are in all about eighty genera containing some five hundred 

 species, but the variety arises chiefly from colour, while the beak 

 alone would sufficiently determine the Family. This feature is 

 usually short and stout, with strongly arched maxilla and man- 

 dible, the former being moveable and hinged to the skull, and 

 the latter truncated. In Nestor and Loriculus the curve is more 

 gradual and the depth less ; in the Cyclopsittacinae and some 

 Psittacinae the bill is distinctly notched ; in the Stringopinae, 

 Nestorinae, and other Psittacinae it is grooved ; while a file-like 

 surface with transverse ridges, below the overhanging hooked tip, 

 distinguishes the Psittacidae from the Trichoglossidae. At the 

 base is generally a large swollen cere, or a similar but very narrow 

 band in various Psittacinae ; in the Platycercine group this is 

 very small, and it is more or less hidden by feathers in certain 

 Psittacinae, Cacatuinae, Cyclopsittacinae, and Nestorinae. The feet 

 are permanently zygodactylous, the metatarsus being short except 

 in Ground-Parrots compressed, and covered with rugose scales. 

 The abbreviated rounded wings of the terrestrial Stringops, where 

 the keel of the sternum is correspondingly reduced, are compara- 

 tively useless ; while these members, though usually moderate, 

 may be long, as in Nasiterna and Cacatua, or more acute, as in 

 the Loriinae ; the primaries are ten in number, the secondaries 

 from eight to fourteen. The tail varies much, being short and 

 square with projecting spiny shafts in Nasiterna, longer with 



1 Bronn's Thier-Reich, Aves, Syst. Theil, 1893, pp. 221, 222. 

 2 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xx. 1891, pp. viii. 2. 



