Genus— TR I CHOGLOSSUS. 
Trichoglossus Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., Vol. 
XIV., pt. I., p. 129, 1826 Type T. moluccanus. 
Australasia Lesson, Traite d’Ornith., p. 209, 1830 . . Type T. moluccanus. 
Also spelt — 
Australia Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. I., p. 3, 1850; 
Medium-sized Trichoglossine birds, with short bills, long wings, long tail 
and small legs and feet. 
The chief character of the Trichoglossine Parrots is the brush tongue, and 
of the genus Trichoglossus the peculiar coloration. 
The bill is long with the cere small, just covering the nostrils, which are 
placed near together high up ; the upper mandible is rapidly curving, with the 
hook long and sharp, the under edges sinuate but without a distinct notch 
succeeding the tip, the inside of which is not cross-lined : the under mandible is 
very short and deep, as deep as long, with the tip truncate and much over- 
hung by the upper mandible. 
The wings are long with the first primary longest, the rest regularly 
decreasing : the primaries narrow and pointed, the secondaries short. The 
tail is long and wedge-shaped, about five-sixths the length of the wing ; 
it is broadly wedged, the outer feathers very short, the middle ones long 
and all the feathers broad. The feet are small, zygodactyle, the tarsus very 
short and thick, covered with reticulate scales ; the toes are long, exceeding 
the length of the tarsus, with long claws. \ 
The introduction of the genus name Trichoglossus was attended with 
confusion. At the time it was proposed no strict rules were in force, but it 
should be noted that the author (Vigors) was one of the first to demand that 
rules should be made and attended to. 
As far as I can trace its history, the name was invented in connection 
with the study of the Linnean Society’s Collection of Australian Birds by Vigors 
and Horsfield. 
In the Zool. Journ., Vol. II., Apl. 1825, p. 37, et seq., Vigors, continuing 
his “ Sketches in Ornithology,” wrote an essay “ On a Group of Psittacidse 
known to the Ancients.” Therein he discussed the classification and diagnosed 
a number of groups without, however, giving names to them. In the 
VOL. VI. 
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