ORDER CARINAT^E. 



1241 



great Eagle-Owl {Bubo ignavus) in the Norfolk Forest-bed, and 

 the existing Indian B. coromandus in the Pleistocene of Madras ; 

 while this genus is also recorded from the Allier Miocene, and is 

 represented in the Eocene of the United States by B. leptosteus, 

 which was about two-thirds the size of the existing B. virginianus 

 now inhabiting the same regions. The existing Ceylon Fish- 

 Owl (Cetupa 1 ceylonensis) occurs in the Pleistocene of Madras, and 

 the great European Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiacd) in that of West- 

 phalia. In the Strigidce, or true Owls, remains of an extinct species 

 of Carine have been described from the Pleistocene of the Island 

 of Rodriguez; while bones from the Miocene of Allier and Gers 

 have been referred to Strix. 



Suborder 20. Psittaci. — The Parrots, Cockatoos, and their 

 allies, which constitute this suborder, are now confined to the 

 warmer regions of the globe, and are remarkable for the presence 

 of a hinge-joint at the base of the strongly-curved cranial portion of 

 the beak, whereby the upper jaw can be moved upon the cranium 

 proper, as is shown in fig. 1125, a. All the genera are of scansorial 



Fig. 1125. — Right lateral aspect of the skull (a) and of the left pes (b) of Fsittacus erythacus. 

 Reduced, «, First (hallux); b, Second; c, Third; d, Fourth digit. (After Blanchard.) 



habits, and the foot has a hallux (fig. n 25, b). In the Psitiacidce, 

 or true Parrots, remains from the Allier Miocene have been referred 

 to the typical African genus Fsittacus, but that term must be used 

 in a wider sense than the one in which it is employed by the students 

 of recent Ornithology. Lophopsittacus is an extinct genus from the 

 Pleistocene of Rodriguez. Remains of the genus Nestor, peculiar 

 to New Zealand, occur in the deposits of that country which yield 

 Dinomis, and probably belong to existing species. The American 

 Macaws are represented by species of Ara in the Brazilian cave- 

 deposits. In the Palceornithidce, which includes the Lories and 

 Parakeets, an extinct species of the existing African and Oriental 

 genus Paltzornis occurs in the Pleistocene of Rodriguez, which has 

 also yielded the extinct Necropsittacus. The Stringopidce of New 



1 Amended from Ketupa. 



