Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/204

191 The soft and thick tongue so characteristic of the Parrots, is doubtless a highly sensitive organ of taste. It is covered, like that of the Mammalia, with papillæ, and being moistened by a constant secretion of saliva, they are able to select and taste different kinds of food. In some of the Australian species, which suck the nectar of flowers, the tongue, while retaining the thick form and fleshy structure common to the Family, is distinguished by the peculiarity of terminating in a number of very delicate and close-set filaments, which can be protruded and expanded like a brush. Mr. Caley records that one of these species (Trichoglossus hæmatodus, .) in confinement, on being shewn a coloured drawing of a flower, applied the tip of its tongue to it, as if it would suck it; and on another occasion made a similar attempt on seeing a piece of printed cotton furniture.

The Parrots are adorned with the richest and most brilliant hues, of which a soft and lustrous green may be considered as the most prevalent, varied, however, with scarlet, yellow, and blue, in profusion, usually arranged in broad and well-defined masses. Though susceptible of increased lustre from the play of light, particularly in such as are of green hues, the plumage of the Parrots does not reflect any proper metallic radiance. They are widely scattered over the warmer regions of the globe, extending far into the southern temperate zone, but scarcely appearing beyond the tropic on the north side of the Equator. The species, which are exceedingly numerous, are for the most part very local; every large island, in the East and West Indies, and even in the groups