218 



ATT t-'C 



size is inferior, and the gronnd-lint nf tlieir plumage commonly green, with some red or yellow on the 

 throat and breast ; [tiie feiiinle i:-. clic^tiiut-brown where the male is black, the tail much graduated, 

 and the furcula (tig. 103) cnniplotc. 



Anion;;- tlie Aiicaris are certnin species more vi\idly green tlmn the rest, the beak of wlilcli has a rlr-ep, lateral; 

 longitudinal furrow ; they are the Groove-bills {Atilocorynchusy Gould). The Aricaris generally are more varie- 

 giited than the true Toucans, to which they bear nearly the same relationship which the Jays and Magpies he'd 

 with the Crows. They a[>pear to be less carnivoruu.s]. 



The Paurots ( P:-i//acits\ Lin.) — 

 Have a stout, bard, solid beak, rounded on all sides, and eiivclii]ied at base by a membrane in ^^hieh 

 the nostrils are pierced ; together with a thick, fleshy, and rounded tongue : tvro circumstances which 

 impart the greatest facility in imitating the human voice. Their inferior larynx, which is complicated, 

 and furnished on each side with three peculiar muscles, [the bony ring at the divarication of the 

 hronchi being besides incomplete, so as to permit of dilatation and contraction,] furtlier contributes to 

 the same ol:iject, [if, indeed, it be not entirely jirorhief d \)\ the latter means]. Their vigorous jaws are 

 set in motion liy a greater number of muscles than are found in other birds, [whence especially results 

 the rcmarkalile molidity of tlie upper mainhble]. They have very long [and reniarkabiy slender] 

 intestines, without cccra ; and subsist on fruit of all kinds [together with bulbs and other succulent 

 parts of vegetables in many instances, holding their food up tn the mnuth ^^ ith oinj foot, as\\ith a 

 hand]. Assisted by their hooked hill, they clamber about the branches of trees ; nestle in hollow 

 trunks; and ha\e a loud and harsh voice in a state of nature. Nearly all of them are adorned 

 \\ ith gorgeous colour--, and they are scarcely found out of the torrid zone, [except in the southern 

 hemispljere], luit are fomid in both continents, the species of course dilfering in each. Every 

 l;u"ge island even has its own species, the short wings of [many of] these birds incapacitating 

 (Iicm frnm traversing great tracts of sea. The species are therefore extremely numerous, and are sab- 

 divided according to the furui of the tail and sume other characters. 



[This extensive g-rouji is obviously an ordinal di\ision of the class, and should doubtless rank lirst in the series 

 fif Birds, precedine; the Birds of Prey, as among jManimalla the Qnadrumana do the Carnivora. If we except tht 

 ti'ivial character of their outer toe beins" reversed, — and their foot even is in all other respects extremely diflerent, 

 and covered with small tubercle-like scales, instead of plates as in all iM^Pa^scrhiLC, and the rest of the yoke-footed 

 f^aaiera without exception,— theyha^■e absolutely nothing in common with the other Zi/ffodaciyii that should entitle 

 ttiem to ran2;e in the same special division : their whole structure is widely at variance ; and if there be one group 

 more than another to which they manifest any particular affinity, it is that of the diurnal, Birds of Prey, which we 

 ciMiceive should ranp^e next to them, though still very distantly allied. They certainly accord with the Falcons 

 more than with any other bird in the contour of the beak, and the nostrils are analogously pierced in a mem- 

 brane termed the cere : they have a similar enlargement of the ccsophagus, which occurs in no other zygodactyle 

 bird, but which is glandular as in the Pigeons, secreting a lacteal substance with 

 which the young are at first nourished, (the Parrots and Pigeons being almost the 

 only bii'ds which subsist exclusively on vegetable diet at all ages). The stomach is 

 but slightly muscular, and we have found it enormously enlarged in old cage spe- 

 cimens ; intestines singularly long and slender, as before stated ; and there is no 

 gall-iiladder, a particular in which the Parrots accord with the Toucans, the 

 great Cuckoo group, and that of the Pigeons. The sternal apparatus (ligs. 104 and 105) 

 differ-^ least from that of the diurnal Birds of Prey, the medial ridge being however 

 rou 1 1 anteriorly, and the furcula slight and peculiarly flattened, being least unlike 

 th t t tl e Pigeons, while in one subdivision of Parroquets it is absent altogether. 

 r on tl e rest of the zygodactyle birds, the Parrots ditl'er remarkably in their intel- 

 1 en e T d docihty, qualities in \i Inch s(mi;c sprnrs p.re unsurpassed by any member 

 cf tl cla^s ; while the other tree hinls nut tranicd (ui tlie definite type of the Pas- 

 p a e with few exceptions rcinarkalily devoid of inlidligence, and iuca|)alile of 

 r cp instruction. 



It further be noticed, that all the numerous tribeuf Parrots confoiTu in every 



c'; p t 1 letailof their organization, being framed on an especial subtype, which, 

 I t may admit (like eveiy other) of sul)ordinate moditications, exhibits no 



1 t of a passage or transition into any other form : the same remark applies 

 t 1 of the preceding groups that do not pertain to the Passeriiuc, but which 



a I in the scale than the present one, nr, in (itlu-r wm-ils, less distantly removed 



aj t tl an all are from theliUter ; lliut tlicylia\c imt l.crn generally recognized as 

 tlm?, nisulated, which all have acknowledged to be the rase in the instance of the 

 ir equally constant distinctive cliaracters being less obvious exte>-uallv. 



Parrots, is attrjljutahlr tu th 



