BILLS OF PARROTS. 209 



and rump ; that of the aracari is generally green, 

 relieved on the same parts with red or yellow. 



Though they belong to different orders as well as 

 to different parts of the world, there are some resem- 

 blances between the hornbills and the toucans ; and 

 the one family of birds performs in the one continent 

 nearly the same office which the other family does 

 in the other. We have a similar instance, with some- 

 thing approaching to the same difference of character, 

 in the merops of the eastern continent, and the prionites 

 of the western. Indeed, in all cases in which the 

 birds or other animals of tropical America and the 

 tropical parts of Asia and Africa can come into com- 

 parison, we find that those of the former part of the 

 world indicate forests more close and tangled but less 

 abundant in fruits than those of the latter. 



Of all the climbing or zygodactylic birds, the par- 

 rot tribe, in its several divisions of macaws, parrots, 

 parroquets, and cockatoos, are the most typical, the 

 most exclusively inhabitants of trees, and the least 

 frequently found upon the ground. The species are 

 very numerous, and the individuals are, in such places 

 as are very favourable to their habits, in incredible 

 flocks. They are all chiefly vegetable in their feed- 

 ing, but some subsist more on the kernels of those 

 forest trees which have hard membranous or shelly 

 coverings, and others more on the pulp of fruits, 

 rejecting the kernels or pips. But whatever may be 

 the nature of their food, there is a general character 

 of the bill which runs through the w^hole tribe ; and, 

 though those which feed more upon pulpy fruits have 

 the bill more enlarged in its cross dimensions than 

 the others, yet the figure of one bill is a very good 

 index to the whole — better than in any other tribe of 

 birds at once so numerous and so varied. 



