. The royal natural history. ertainpeculiarities connected with the course of the carotid arteries. As a rule, thefemales are markedly distinct fi-om the males, which, with the exception of theparrotlets, is not the case in the preceding groups; the tail-feathers are frequentlypointed ; and the sides of the head are either completely feathered, or only nakedjust round the eyes. The bill is often very strong, and frt<[Uently, especially its 126 PARROTS. upper moiety, red in colour. In the skull the ring round the eye is cere is always narrow, surrounding the whole base of the
. The royal natural history. ertainpeculiarities connected with the course of the carotid arteries. As a rule, thefemales are markedly distinct fi-om the males, which, with the exception of theparrotlets, is not the case in the preceding groups; the tail-feathers are frequentlypointed ; and the sides of the head are either completely feathered, or only nakedjust round the eyes. The bill is often very strong, and frt<[Uently, especially its 126 PARROTS. upper moiety, red in colour. In the skull the ring round the eye is cere is always narrow, surrounding the whole base of the bill with a band ofequal width, and is generally partially feathered; while the nostrils may be eitherexposed or concealed. The group ranges over the Oriental, Ethiopian, andAustralasian regions. The Moluccas and Papuan Islands are the home of a genus ofparrots of this group, of which the typical red-sided eclectus (Eclectuiipectoralis) exceeds the green parrot in size; its total length being from 16 to IHh Eclectus RED-SIDED ECLECTUS (J nat. size) inches. In this genus the bill is thick, notched, and very deep, with its lowermandible marked by a keel along the middle line of the symphysis. The tailis of moderate length and nearly squared, with its central feathers of normalform ; and the nostrils are hidden. In the females the general hue of the plumageis red, while in the males it is green. So different are the two sexes of the red-si<led eclectus, that it is at first sight PARRAQUETS. 127 •lifficult to believe that they belong to the same species. In the female, the beakis black and the eye yellow: the plumage of the head and upper-parts of the neckand breast is rich crimson-red: a band across the upper part of the back, the lowerbreast and abdomen, as well as the edge of the wing and under-coverts, are blue;the back, rump, upper tail, and wing-coverts, and the secondaries are blood-red ; theprimaries and their coverts are blue, edged with green on their outer
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectzoology
