1864.) PARROTS OF THE MALAYAN REGION. 277 
of Sciurus, and, in birds, by having Woodpeckers, Hornbills, and 
several isolated genera of Passeres, while forms so characteristic of 
the Austro-Malayan islands as Monarcha, Pachycephala, Tropido- 
rhynchus, and Eos are quite absent. Celebes and the Philippines 
will therefore form together a little intermediate region between those 
of Australia and India. The real cause of their distinctive peculiari- 
ties I believe to lie in their never having been immediately connected 
with these regions, though they have probably at some time been in 
closer proximity than at present—and, in the case of Celebes at least, 
to their representing the remains of some ancient land extending to 
the westward, at an epoch probably anterior to that at which Borneo 
and Sumatra were raised above the ocean. 
The great islands which form the western half of the archipelago, 
Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and the Malay peninsula, present a most sur- 
prising poverty of Psittacine birds. Only four species are found over 
this immense region ; and these belong to three genera, of which only 
one is found on both sides of the boundary-line. This fact forms one 
of the strongest proofs of the division of the archipelago between 
the Indian and Australian regions; for on the one side we have 
fifteen genera, of which ten are quite peculiar, on the other three 
genera, of which one is Indian, one Indo-Australian, and one some- 
what isolated species only peculiar. The distribution of the genus 
Loriculus, which is the only one really common to the Indian and 
Australian regions, is very interesting. The southern island of the 
Philippines seems to be its metropolis, since no less than four species 
are found there ; one inhabits Celebes, one Sulla, and one Gilolo ; the 
rest are found in Flores, Java, Sumatra, and Malacca, Ceylon, India, 
China, and Manilla, The range of the genus is therefore very ex- 
tensive ; yet one-half of the species will be found concentrated in a 
limited tract, including Mindanao, N. Celebes, Sulla, and Gilolo. 
This district is upon the confines of the Australian and the Indian 
regions ; and it is very interesting to remark that this, the only genus 
which is common to the two, is of doubtful affinities, and serves to 
connect the preeminently Australian Trichoglosside with the Psit- 
tacide of the rest of the world. 
The classification and natural arrangement of the Pstttaci has been 
the subject of much difference of opinion. For a long time they 
were placed as a simple family of Scansores along with Woodpeckers, 
Toucans, and Cuckoos, birds with which it is difficult to see that 
they have the remotest affinity, and to which they have no resem- 
blance, except in the one character of the >-toed feet. 
The skull of a Parrot is remarkable for its large size, for the nearly 
complete orbits, for the broad and powerful lower mandible, for the 
large and complicated lingual and hyoid bones, and for the perfect 
articulation of theuppermandibleto the cranium—peculiarities which, 
in their combination, separate it most widely from every other form 
of bird. The sternum has a characteristic form unlike that of any 
bird; the furcula is small and attached low down on the anterior 
margin of the keel, and in some genera is liable to be totally wanting 
