496 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— BAFT OBES. 



28. FamUy PSITTACIDjE : Parrots. 



See above. Two carotids, the left superficial. All New World Parrots belong here (but 

 all Psittaeidm are not of the New World). 



39. Subfamily ARIN;^: Parrots. 



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

 the Macaws (Ara) and our species of Conurus are characteristic. 



159 CONU'BUS. (Gr. Kavos, Iconos, a cone; oiipa, oura, tail; cuneate-tail.) Paeroquets. 

 Tail lengthened, nearly equalling wings, cuneate, with tapering feathers. Face entirely 

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

 stout, with bulging lateral outline, broadly rounded culmen, and toothed or 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 3d and 3d primaries longest, the Ist and 4th subequal and shorter. A large genus 

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



460. C. carolinen'sis. (Lat. Carolinian. Figs. 346, 3i7.) Cakolina Paeroquet. Green; head 

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

 yellow. Sexes alJlce. loimjr simply green. Length 12.50-13.50; extent 21.00-22.50 ; wing 

 7.00-8.00 ; tail 6.00-7.00. Southern States ; up 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, aiid granivorous ; not regularly migratory, but roving. Said to breed in 

 companies in hollow trees ; eggs whitish, 1.40 X 1.05, elliptical in shape, rough in texture. 



IV. Order RAFTORES: Birds of Prey. 



Bill epignathous, eered; cmd 

 feet not zygodactyle. The rapa- 

 cious birds {Baptores, Baptatpres 

 or Acoipitres of authors, Aeto- 

 morphte of Huxley) form a fairly 

 natural assemblage, to which this 

 expression furnishes a clew. 

 (The parrots, probably the only 

 other birds with strongly hooked 

 and truh/ cered bill, are yoke- 

 toed.) The Baptores present- 

 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- 

 chylosed or not. Angle of man- 

 dible not recurved ; maxillo- 

 palatines united to an ossified 

 septum ; rostrum arched and 

 hooked; basipterygoid processes 



Via. 348. — Death as a bird of prey. (From Michelet. ) 



