CHAPTER X, 



THE PARROT TRIBE, Order PSITTACI. 



ONE of the most interesting groups of birds is that of the parrots, under which 

 general term may be included not only the true parrots, but likewise the macaws, 

 lories, love-birds, cockatoos, etc. This general interest is due not only to the 

 beauty of form and gorgeousness of plumage characterising so many members 

 of the group, but likewise to the ease with which they are domesticated, their 

 pleasing manners when in this state, and above all to the extraordinary facility 

 with which they recollect and repeat sentences of human speech. That the memory 

 of parrots is very strongly developed, there can be no sort of doubt ; but whether 

 their intellectual powers rank really higher than those of some of the Passerine birds 

 is problematical. The appropriateness to the occasion with which sentences learned 

 by these birds are sometimes uttered is probably mainly or entirely due GO associa- 

 tion, and in no sense implies any knowledge of the meaning of the phrase. It may 

 be added that the occasions when such phrases are introduced inappropriately are, 

 perhaps, not much less infrequent than when they are apposite. 



Parrots form a large group, including considerably more than five hundred 

 species, which present well-marked characters by which its members can be readily 

 distinguished from all other assemblages of birds. Their most obvious external 

 characters are displayed by their feet and bills. In the feet the fourth toe (as in 

 some of the Picarians) is permanently turned backwards, and as the first toe has 

 likewise a similar direction, the whole foot is divided into a front and back portion, 

 each comprising two digits ; this type of foot- structure being termed zygodactyle. 

 The covering of the feet takes the form of rough granular scales. As regards the 

 beak, its base is invested with the wax-like protuberance termed the cere, which is 

 frequently feathered, while in form it is short, stout, and strongly hooked at the 

 extremity. In addition to the above, it may be noted that, owing to the presence 

 of a transverse hinge in the skull, the upper half of the beak is movable ; while 

 the palate is of the bridged (desmognathous) type. The skull, as shown in the 

 figure in the introductory chapter, is also very generally distinguished by the 

 presence of a complete bony ring surrounding the socket of the eye ; and the 

 symphysis of the lower jaw is short, obtuse, and deeply channelled. The tongue 

 is also thick and fleshy, and may be fringed or brush-like at the extremity. 

 Extreme shortness characterises the legs of most of the species, this shortness being 

 most marked in the metatarsus, of which the bone is greatly expanded. The leg- 

 bone, or tibia, generally has no bony bridge at the lower end. The furcula is 

 always weak, and it may be incomplete or even wanting. The feathers are pro- 

 vided with aftershafts ; and the number in the tail is, except in one genus, ten. If 



