Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/202

Rh conformity in colouring, still further pointed out the affinity; and I was at length confirmed in my conjectures respecting the situation of these birds, by arriving at a knowledge of their habits being actually those of the true Woodpeckers, and of their chief affinity being to that group. The regular gradation by which these two families, united in their general characters, and those the characters, it must be remembered, most prominent and typical in their own tribe, are also united in their minuter points of formation, appears to me now eminently conspicuous."

Respecting the minuter points alluded to, Mr. Vigors remarks that some of the Psittaridæ, among which he particularises the Ring-necked Parroquets of India (Palæornis), partially employ the tail in supporting themselves as they climb, in a manner corresponding to that of the Woodpeckers. The tongue, also, peculiar to the Parrots, as he observes, becomes slenderer, and as is said, more extensible in that group of which Psittacus aterrimus, ., is the representative; thus evincing an approximation, slight indeed, but still an approximation, to that of the Woodpeckers.

The technical characters by which the Psittacidæ are distinguished may be briefly summed up as follows: The beak is very short, the upper mandible greatly curved downward at the tip, and overhanging the lower, which is much shorter, and, as it were, abruptly cut off at the extremity: the upper mandible is moveable: its base is enveloped in a cere, in which the nostrils are pierced. The tongue is thick, fleshy, and undivided. The