PSITTACI 



363 



acuminate feathers in Stringops, moderate in the Loriinae and 

 C}'clopsittacinae, elongated and wedge-shaped in Conurus. Ara, 

 ^Fsittacula, and many species of Palaeornis, long and broad in 

 Platycercus and Cacatua, and so forth. Oreopsittacus possesses 

 fourteen rectrices, every other genus twelve ; in Prioniturus the 

 median pair have bare shafts and racquet-tips. 



The U-shaped furcula is sometimes entirely absent; a com- 

 pletely ossified orbital ring occurs in the Cacatuinae, Stringopinae, 

 and many Psittacinae ; the tongue is short and fleshy, being 

 fringed in the Nestorinae, or having a brush of hairs towards the 

 tip in the Loriinae and Nanodes ; the uniquely modified syrinx 

 has three pairs of tracheal and tracheo-bronchial muscles ; and a 

 crop is present. The aftershaft is large, the down of the adults 

 and young is uniform, the latter being naked when hatched. 



The coloration is commonly gaudy, and particularly so in 



Fig 72. — Uvaeau Parakeet. Nymphicus uvacensis. x J. (From Nature.) 



