1,0 RIAN A. 
165 
India and its islands, but whose distribution does not 
extend so far south as Australia. It is, however, pro- 
bable that this group will require further division, 
and that most of the genera indicated by Wagler in 
his Monograph will hereafter be adopted. The 
structure and comparative weakness of the bill of 
these birds, plainly indicate that the nature of their 
food must be different in quality from that of the 
powerful billed Parrots, and accordingly we find, that 
soft fruits, as well as the juices of flowers, constitute 
their principal support. They are closely connected 
in affinity with that group of which Psiltacula Kuhlii, 
Vigors, is a type, and with the Lorikeets or genus 
Trichoglossus, Vigors, which occupy their place in 
Australia and the islands of the Pacific. In the 
breadth, and the rounded tips of their tail feathers, 
may also be traced an approach to the broad-tails or 
subfamily Platycercince, with which a connexion is 
thus sustained. In disposition they are lively, but 
mild and tractable, and when domesticated, fond of 
being caressed. The call-note of many of the spe- 
cies is similar in sound to the name they usually go 
by, and some of them learn to speak with great dis- 
tinctness. Our first figure represents the 
