. The birds of South Africa. Birds. 222 PSITTACID^ Order III. PSITTACI. This order, containing the Parrots, unhke the previous order PicaricB, is a very distinct and v^ell marked one vfith no very near allies. Perhaps their nearest af&nities are with the Owls and Birds of Prey. They can be distinguished at once from all other birds by their zygodactyle feet, the shape of their dorsal vertebrae, which are opisthocoelous or concave posteriorly, and by the fact that the upper mandible is loosely articulated to the posterior part of the skull so as to be slightly Fig. 74.—Left foot
. The birds of South Africa. Birds. 222 PSITTACID^ Order III. PSITTACI. This order, containing the Parrots, unhke the previous order PicaricB, is a very distinct and v^ell marked one vfith no very near allies. Perhaps their nearest af&nities are with the Owls and Birds of Prey. They can be distinguished at once from all other birds by their zygodactyle feet, the shape of their dorsal vertebrae, which are opisthocoelous or concave posteriorly, and by the fact that the upper mandible is loosely articulated to the posterior part of the skull so as to be slightly Fig. 74.—Left foot of Pceoccjphalus fvicicapillvs, tees numbered, x \. Other characteristics are as follows : Bill short, stout, and hooked; palate desmognathous ; a fleshy, generally swollen space between the base of the beak and the forehead called the cere, within which open the nostrils ; tongue thick and fleshy ; plantar tendons galline; no caeca on the intestine; spinal feather tract well defined on the neck and forked on the upper back; oil gland if present tufted; twelve tail-feathers (except in one genus); ten primaries. The Parrots lay white eggs in holes in trees usually excavated by themselves ; they make no nest beyond the wood chips, and the young are hatched naked and do not pass through a downy stage. FaTnily I. PSITTACID^. Both the South African genera belong to this generalised and extensive family, which is distributed over the inter-tropical and sub-tropical regions of both Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Stark, Arthur Cowell, d. 1899; Sclater, William Lutley, 1863-1944; Sclater, William Lutley, 1863-1944. Fauna of South Africa. London, R. H. Porter
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