TRICHOGLOSSUS. 
171 
ly graduated, with the tips of the feathers narrow ; 
the wings are also narrow and pointed. It consti- 
tutes Vigors’s genus Trichoglossus, and is thus cha- 
racterized: — Bill subelongate, compressed, weak, the 
inferior mandible slightly convex, longer than high, 
narrowed towards the tip, with the margins thin and 
entire; inner surface of the projecting tip of the up- 
per mandible smooth, or but slightly striated ; tongue 
furnished near the tip with a pencil of bristly papillae ; 
wings of moderate length, narrow, the first quill 
longest, the second and third a trifle shorter, the 
webs entire ; feet, the tarsi short, feathered below 
the joint ; toes strong, with the soles broad and ex- 
tended ; the claws greatly falcated, strong and sharp ; 
tail graduated, with the feathers narrowing towards 
the point. The members of this genus are birds of 
elegant form, and some exhibit a great variety and 
richness of plumage ; they are strictly arboreal and 
scansorial, as indicated by the form and strength of 
their feet and claws. In the quality of their food, 
and the structure of their tongue, they shew their 
typical station in this representative section of the 
Tenuirostral Tribe, their principal nutriment being 
derived from the nectar of flowers they also eat or 
suck the juices of the soft or exterior portion of va- 
rious fruits, but do not attempt the kernels or actual 
seeds, which constitute the general and favourite 
pabulum of the rest of the Psittacidas. In their 
contour, and the indications of a nuchal collar which 
several of the species possess, we also trace a resem* 
