496 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —RAPTOBES. 



28. Family PSITTACID^ : Parrots. 



See above. Twu ciirotiils, the left superficial. All New World Parrots belong here (but 

 all PsittacidcE are nut of the New World). 



39. Subfamily ARIN/E: Parrots. 



See above. Ambiens muscle, tufted oil-gland and complete fiirculum. Of this subfamily 

 the Macaws {Ara) and our species of Conwits are characteristic. 



159 CONU'RUS. (Gr. Koims, konos, a cone; ovpa, oura, tail; cuneate-tail.) Parroquets. 

 Tail lengthened, nearly ec[ualling wings, cuneatc, with tapering feathers. Face entirely 

 feathered excepting a shght space about the eye. Nostrils in the feathered cere. Bill very 

 stout, with bulging lateral outline, broadly rounded culmen, and toothed ov lobed commissure. 

 Tarsi very short, much less than the inner anterior toe ; outer anterior longer than outer pos- 

 terior toe. Feet granular-reticulate, becoming scutellate on the toes. Wings pointed ; in our 

 species the 2d and od primaries longest, the 1st and 4th subequal and shorter. A large genus 

 of tropical America, with one U. S. species. 



460. C. carolinen'sis. (Lat. Carolinian. Figs. 34G, 347.) CAROLINA Parroquet. Green; head 

 yellow; face red: bill white; feet flesh-color; wings more or less variegated with blue and 

 yi'llow. Sexes alike. lo»»i/ simply green. Length 12.50-13.50; extent 21.00-22.50 ; wing 

 7.1)0-8.00 ; tail (J. 00-7-00. Southern States ; u)! the Mississippi Valley to the Missouri region; 

 W. to Arkansas and the Indian Territory ; recently Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, etc. ; formerly 

 strayed to Pennsylvania and New York, but of late has receded even from the Carolinas; still 

 abundant in Florida. But it would seem that if the cruel and wanton slaughter to which the 

 gentle creatures are subjected by idlers goes on, they must before long be exterminated. Gre- 

 garious, frugivorous, and graniv(.irous ; not regitlarly migratory, but roving. Said to breed in 

 comjjauies in InjUow trees ; eggs whitish, 1.40 X 1.05, elliptical in shape, rough in texture. 



Order RAPTORES: Birds of Prey. 



Fig. 348. — Death as a bird of prey, (From Miclielet. ) 



Bin epignathous, cered; and 

 feet not zygodactyle. The rapa- 

 cious birds (JRaptores, Paptatores 

 or Accipitres of authors, Aeto- 

 morphce of Huxley) form a fairly 

 natural assemblage, to which this 

 expression furnishes a clew. 

 (The parrots, probably the only 

 other birds with strongly liooked 

 and truly cered bill, are yoke- 

 toed.) The Bcqjtores preseu'- 

 several osteological and other an- 

 atomical characters. The ster 

 num is ample and deep keeled, 

 its posterior margin doubly or 

 singly notched or fenestrate on 

 each side, or entire with central 

 emargination ; the furculum an- 

 ohylosed or not. Angle of man- 

 dible not recurved ; maxillo- 

 palatines united to an ossified 

 septum ; rostrum arched and 

 hooked; basipterygoid processes 



