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TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



ii. The)/ are Adept Climbers. 



Flight is much impeded in the dense crowns of trees. Hence, parrots 

 move about mostly by climbing from branch to branch. Their feet, like 

 those of woodpeckers (which see), are constructed on the scansorial 

 type, and enable them to clasp the branches with firmness and surety, 

 though they are poorly adapted for hopping or walking. In climbing, 

 the beaks render excellent service, performing, in fact, the functions 

 of a third hand. (Compare apes with prehen- 

 sile tails.) Branches above or below are seized 

 by the beak as with a pair of pliers ; when 

 suspended by the beak or by the curved, 

 hook-like point of its upper portion, which 



Parrots. (About one-seventh natural size.) 

 On the left two Amazon Parrots ; on the light several Love-birds. 



projects considerably beyond the lower, the bird can swing freely in the 

 air. Friction is increased and a firmer hold insured by file-like notches 

 on the under surface of the terminal hook of the beak. The upper 

 mandible being united by a flexible joint to the frontal bone of the skull, 

 parrots can open their beaks very widely, and therefore clasp branches of 

 some thickness. They are, in fact, thorough experts in all sorts of 

 climbing performances, and therefore have not without reason been 

 named "feathered monkeys." 



