156 
GENUS MICROGLOSSIAS. 
tention has hitherto been paid to the natural habits 
of these curious birds. They are said to feed upon 
bulbous roots, as well as other fruits, or rather the 
seeds of fruits. They are seldom seen in flocks of 
any magnitude, but keep more in family parties. In 
disposition they are wild and fierce, and do not ex- 
hibit that docility and aptness for imitation so con- 
spicuous in other members of the family. 
The subject of our next illustration, though bear- 
ing in many respects a strong resemblance to the 
preceding genus, is distinguished from it by the pe- 
culiar form of its tongue, which is tubular and ex- 
tensile, and by the form and contour of its bill. The 
upper mandible is of great size, and considerably im- 
pressed, the tomia or cutting edges being bidentate 
or doubly sinuated. The under mandible is small 
in proportion, with a single emargination. The or- 
bits and cheeks are naked, and the head is adorned 
with a long crest, generally pendent, but which can 
be erected, and iB composed of long narrow acuminate 
feathers. The legs are naked a little way above the 
tarsal joint, the tarsi themselves are short. The tail 
is of mean length and even. It constitutes the type 
of Geoffroy’s genus Microglossus, which is retained 
by Wagler in his Monographic. Psiiiacorum. In 
Kuhl’s Conspectus, it is the representative of his sec- 
tion Probosciger, and he considers it as a form in- 
termediate between the Maccaws and Cockatoo, but 
our present ignorance of the natural habits of this 
