Australian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society. 279 



inferior! brevi profunde emarginatâ, apice quadrato, myxâ 



convexâ glabra. 

 Alœ rotundatne ; remige prima secundâ breviori, qiiinta; pra?ci- 



puè a?quali ; secundâ et tertiâ longissimis : omnium, prima 



excepta, pogoniis externis abrupte medium versus emar- 



ginatis. 

 Cauda lata, depressa, subrotundata aut subgradata ; rectricibus 



apice subrotundis. 

 Pedes ; tarsis elevatis ; digitis gracilibus, elongatis ; unguibns 



longis, parum falcatis. 



The chief difference between the typical species of this genus 

 and those of the preceding, lies in the roundness and compara- 

 tive shortness of the wing, and the elevation of the tarsi of the 

 former. Other more minute distinctions may be also detected 

 sufficient to separate the groups ; such as the more rounded 

 culmen of the bill of Plafi/cercus, the breadth and depression of 

 the tail ; the abrupt emargination of the webs of the quill- 

 feathers, &c. : but the former characters of the wings and tai-si 

 are the most decisive, as indicating the greater developement 

 of the characters of these neighbouring groups. These charac- 

 ters at once point out the terrestrial habits of Plaft/ccrcus. And 

 they not only show that the food of the birds of that genus is 

 found upon the ground, but they evince their superior activity 

 and greater freedom of action, when compared with the remain- 

 ing groups of the family, whose gait is awkward and embar- 

 rassed, and who seem to possess no powers of motion on the 

 ground. The species enumerated in this genus accord in gene- 

 ral with the above characters taken from PL Pcnnantii, which x 

 may be considered the type ; with the exception of PL scapula- 

 tus, or King's Parrot, which exhibits some slight deviation from 

 the characters of the bill. This difference, however, is not of 



sufficient 



