TRICHOGLOSSUS. 
the ground, are individually much more abundant and are more universally 
dispersed, being found in every part of the country yet visited, but from 
circumstances not easily to be accounted for, not more than one species is 
found in Western Australia. Other members of the genus are found in New 
Guinea and the Moluccas, but Australia is the great nursery for the birds of 
this form. 
“ Jn their structure, habits and mode of nidification, and in their economy, 
no two groups of the same family can be more widely different than the 
Trichoglossi and the Platycerci , the pencilled tongue, diminutive stomach, 
thick skin, tough flesh, and foetid odour of the former presenting a decided 
contrast to the simple tongue, capacious crop and stomach, thin skin, delicate 
flesh and freedom from odour of the latter : besides which the Trichoglossi 
possess a strong os furcatorium, which organ is wanting in the Platycerci ; 
hence while the Trichoglossi are powerful, swift and arrowlike in their flight, 
the Platycerci are feeble, pass through the air in a succession of undulations 
near the ground, and never fly to any great distance. The mode in which 
the two groups approach and alight upon and quit the trees is also 
remarkably different : the Trichoglossi dashing among and alighting upon the 
branches simultaneously, and with the utmost rapidity, and quitting them 
in like manner, leaving the deafening sound of their thousand voices echoing 
through the woods; while the Platycerci rise to the branch after their 
undulating flight and leave them again in the like quiet manner, no sound 
being heard but their inward piping note. The eggs of the Trichoglossi are 
from two to four in number.” 
As confirmatory, I quote the remarks of another very famous worker 
in field zoology as worthy of note. 
A. R. Wallace ( Proc . Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1864, p. 274) wrote : 
“ Undoubtedly the most highly organised form of Parrot is the Tridioglossine 
or Brush-tongue family, in which the whole structure is modified to enable 
these birds to derive a considerable portion of their subsistence from the 
nectar of flowers. The bill is unusually small, elongated and compressed, 
so that it may readily enter the corolla ; the tongue is large, long, and very 
extensible, and can be thrust down to the very bottom of the nectary ; and 
the papillae of the terminal portion of the upper surface are developed into 
erectile fibres, forming a double brush, which rapidly gathers up all the 
honeyed secretion of the blossom. In correlation with this structure, the 
species are mostly of small size, of graceful forms, and have powerfully 
grasping feet — qualities that enable them to climb actively among the twigs 
and branches, and to cling in any position to the waving sprays of blossom. 
They have also elongated wings and a powerful flight, which give them the 
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