222 PSITTACID^ 



Order III. PSITTACI. 



This order, containing the Parrots, unhke the previous order 

 PicaricB, is a very distinct and v^ell marked one vfith no very near 

 allies. Perhaps their nearest af&nities are with the Owls and Birds 

 of Prey. 



They can be distinguished at once from all other birds by their 

 zygodactyle feet, the shape of their dorsal vertebrae, which are 

 opisthocoelous or concave posteriorly, and by the fact that the upper 

 mandible is loosely articulated to the posterior part of the skull so 

 as to be slightly moveable. 



Fig. 74.— Left foot of Pceoccjphalus fvicicapillvs, tees numbered, x \. 



Other characteristics are as follows : Bill short, stout, and 

 hooked ; palate desmognathous ; a fleshy, generally swollen space 

 between the base of the beak and the forehead called the cere, 

 within which open the nostrils ; tongue thick and fleshy ; plantar 

 tendons galline ; no caeca on the intestine ; spinal feather tract 

 well defined on the neck and forked on the upper back ; oil gland 

 if present tufted ; twelve tail-feathers (except in one genus) ; ten 

 primaries. 



The Parrots lay white eggs in holes in trees usually excavated 

 by themselves ; they make no nest beyond the wood chips, and the 

 young are hatched naked and do not pass through a downy stage. 



FaTnily I. PSITTACID^. 



Both the South African genera belong to this generalised and 

 extensive family, which is distributed over the inter-tropical and 

 sub-tropical regions of both hemispheres. 



