306 BIRDS. 
PAROQUETS A TROMPE, Vuill. 
Which possess characters sufficiently well marked to be taken from the 
others. Their short, square tail, and their tuft composed of long and 
narrow feathers, assimilate them to the Cockatoos. Their cheeks are 
naked as in the Ara, but their enormous upper mandible, and the very 
short lower one, which cannot be made to close completely, their cylindri- 
cal tongue, terminated by a small horny knob, split at the apex, and sus- 
ceptible of being greatly protruded beyond the bill, their legs, naked a 
little above the heel, and finally, their short and flat tarsi on which they 
often rest in walking, distinguish them from all other Parrots. But two 
species are known, both natives of the East Indies*. A subgenus might 
also perhaps be made of the 
Przoporus, //lig—Prrrucues, Incamses, Vaill. 
Which have a weaker bill, more elevated tarsi, and straighter nails than 
the other Parrots. They walk about on the ground, and seek their food 
among the grass}. : 
There are two African birds, closely allied to each other, and generally 
placed among the Scansoria, which appear to me to have some analogy 
with the Gallinacex, and especially with the Hoccos. 
They have the tail and wings of the Hoccos, and, like them, perch on 
trees; the bill is short, and the upper mandible gibbous; there is a short 
membrane between the fore-toes, but the external one, it is true, is often 
directed backwards like that of the Ulule. Their nostrils, also, are simply 
pierced in the horn of the bill, the edges of the mandibles are dentated, 
and the sternum (at least that of the Touraco) has not those large emar- 
ginations so common in the Gallinacee. There are two genera of these 
birds: the first is, 
CoryTuaixt, Llig. 
Or the Touracos, in which the bill does not mount on the forehead, and 
the head is furnished with an erectile tuft. The most common species, | 
Cuculus persa, L.; Enl. 601; Vaill., Prom., &c., 16 and 17, is 
found in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. It is a beautiful 
green, with part of the quills of the wings crimson. It builds in 
hollow trees, and feeds on fruit||. The second is the 
* Psittacus aterrimus, Gm., or Ps. gigas, Lath., Edw. 316:—Ps. goliath, Kuhl, or 
VAra noir & trompe, Vaill. per I, pl. xii and xiii;—L’ dra gris & trompe, Id. Ib. pl. 
ii, is perhaps a variety of the same. The name of trompe is not exactly correct. 
The tongue is not hollow, and in fact all that ean be properly styled tongue, is the 
little horny piece which invests the extremity of the cylinder. See Geoff. Saint Hill, 
Ap. VI, Gal. 4. 
From this subdivision M. Vieillot has made his genus Mricrocuossus, Galer. 
Tele 
+ Ps. formosus, Vaill. 1, 32; Sh. Mise. 228;—Ps. Nove-Zelandie, Lath., Mus. 
Carls. 28;—Ps. cornutus, Lath., Syn. Supp. III, pl. viii. 
+ Vieillot has changed this name into OpzTuus. 
|| Add the Youraco-géant, Vieill. Prom. and Guép. pl. 19;—the Touraco Pauline, 
) 
