T4 cassell's book of birds. 



journeys to any considerable distance, are quite exceptional among them. They are, in general, very 

 affectionate and docile ; the male has frequently but one mate during his whole life, and nearly all 

 of them brood more than once in the year. 



The nests of this order of birds are of very various construction, and the number of eggs never 

 large. The task of incubation usually devolves upon the female, who is cheered and tended by her 

 mate during the period of her seclusion, but he also occasionally shares her labours, and both parents 

 co-operate in feeding and taking care of their young. Many species are considered inimical to 

 mankind, on account of their marauding attacks upon property ; and yet the benefits they confer far 

 outweigh any injuries of which they may be guilty. They clear away the seeds of noxious weeds, free 

 the plants from insects ; and their lively and cheering presence in the woods, their beauty, their song, 

 and the ease with which they are tamed, together with other good qualities, fully entitle them to our 

 admiration and regard. The flesh of most of them affords an appetising and healthy food, and the 

 plumage of some species forms a beautiful and admired decoration. 



PARROTS {Psittacim). 



If it is ever permissible to compare animals of one class with those of another, we would 

 state our opinion that the parrots hold among birds much the same position as that occupied by 

 monkeys among quadrupeds. The truth of this remark will become obvious as we proceed with their 

 history. Most systematists have considered parrots as entitled to take but an inferior place in the 

 zoological series, founding this opinion upon a single characteristic which they share with many other 

 birds of far humbler endowments ; we allude to the prehensile structure of the foot. Parrots, Wood- 

 peckers, Pepper-eaters, Curacus, Barbets, and Jacamars, are all climbing birds ; that is to say, they all 

 have two toes placed in front and two directed backwards ; and, immaterial as this structure of the 

 foot may appear, it has been deemed a sufficient reason for forming an order embracing several races 

 of most dissimilar form, which present only this one feature in common. Little stress should, in reality, 

 be laid upon this disposition of the toes, from whatever point of view it is regarded, seeing that Wood- 

 peckers, Tree-creepers, and a great number of others that do not possess the scansorial foot, vie 

 with the so-called climbing birds in the facility with which they climb. The three-toed Woodpecker is 

 not inferior in the dexterity with which it can use its claws to any four-toed scansorial species ; and we 

 shall, we believe, be giving this climbing foot its proper appreciation if we compare it to and rank it 

 with the flexible tail of some mammalia, the possession of which is not confined to any particular 

 race, but bestowed alike upon arboreal species of the most various kinds. A foot of this description 

 is by no means of such uniform structure as is usually supposed, and, in truth, is scarcely less varied 

 than are the birds themselves ; the foot of the parrot, in particular, differs essentially from the 

 pair-toed foot of other Scansores, in the development of the central part, which renders it in its 

 functions comparable to a hand. The parrots, in fact, constitute a distinct and very clearly defined 

 race, their most distinguishing characteristic being found in the structure of their beak, which can never 

 be mistaken for that of any other bird. At the first glance, indeed, the beak of the parrot would appear 

 to resemble that of the birds of prey ; but it is, in reality, much thicker and stronger, and also 

 comparatively higher and more symmetrical in its form. The legs are thick, strong, and fleshy, but 

 never long ; the tarsus much shorter than the middle toe, and always covered with small scaly plates ; 

 the toes are moderately long, and have a thick sole, but this exists only on certain peculiar ball-like 

 elevations ; upon their upper surface the feet are covered with minute scales, resembling those of the 

 tarsus ; and these scales, as they approach the ends of the toes, become gradually larger, and project 

 beyond the base of the claw upon the terminal joint in the shape of short tubular or band-like plates ; 



