PARROTS 



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or less green on the wings and the lower part of the back, and dark violet on the 

 rump and tail, the under-parts being dark green, wing-coverts purplish red, and 

 the sides of the head marked by longitudinal stripes of black and white with bare 

 reddish rings round the ej'es. The genus Schizorhis includes about a dozen species 

 distinguished from other plantain-eaters by the colour of their plumage, and the 

 slight compression of the beak, which has an arched ridge, with the slit-shaped 

 nostrils placed near its base. A well-known member of the group is the handsome 

 S. africana, of Senegambia and the Gold Coast. The genus Gallirex, which may 

 be regarded as intermediate between the two last, comprises a couple of species 

 distinguished by the shape of the beak and the oval nostrils, as well as by the 

 striking plumage, in which green predominates. In this group the South African 

 G. porphyreolophus, characterised by its glossy violet hood, is about the size of a 

 jackdaw. The typical plantain-eaters, on the other hand, are distinguished by the 

 beak being somewhat flattened at the base, with the ridge widening into a small 

 flat plate on the forehead, the presence of a bare ring round the eyes, and the blue 

 plumage. The violet plantain-eater (Musophaga violacea) of tropical West Africa, 

 which may also be compared in size to a jackdaw, has glossy dark blue plumage, 

 dark carmine velvety feathers on the head, and a narrow white stripe below the 

 bare space round the eye. Largest of all is the giant turaco (Corythceola cristata), 

 which is about the size of a pheasant, and the only species of its genus. This bird 

 is for the most part light blue with a black hood or crest, green breast, chestnut- 

 coloured legs, belly, and rump, and a tail blue at the root and margined at the tip 

 with blue, the middle of the outer feathers showing a broad olive-yellow transverse 

 stripe. The beak is sharply ridged and laterally compressed, with round nostrils, 

 and the region round the eye bare. 



The mouse-birds or colies of the exclusively African family Coliidce include a 

 number of climbing species of the approximate size of finches characterised by the 

 crested head, the short conical, curved beak, and the very long and graduated tail. 

 These birds, which feed on fruits and buds, associate on tree-tops or among tangled 

 creepers in small flocks, creeping and hanging in strange postures very much after 

 the manner of titmice. The South African coly {Colius striatus) is an almost 

 uniformly brown bird with a reddish forehead, while the white-headed C. capensis 

 is distinguished by a black-edged white stripe on the back and a red eye-ring. 

 G. erythrovielon has likewise a red eye-ring, and the head marked with buff. In 

 C. macrurus the eye-ring is red and the nape blue, and 0. castanotus has the lower 

 part of the back maroon and lacks a white stripe. The black throat and forehead 

 are distinctive of G. nigricollis, as is the white head of G. leucocephalus, and the 

 white ear-coverts of G. leucotis, the white-eared mouse-bird. 



In spite of the fact that it is the home of the typical representative 

 of the whole group, Africa is but poorly off for parrots, Psittacidce. 

 The blunt-tailed group, is, however, exclusively confined to that portion of the 

 continent lying south of the Sahara. These parrots are characterised by the 

 shortness of the lower half of the beak, and the abbreviated tail, which is only half 

 as long as the wings. Several of the numerous species inhabit the Gabun and 

 other parts of the west coast ; the black-headed parrot (Pceocephcdus senegalus) is a 

 well-known Senegambian bird, which is replaced in East Africa by the brown- 



