COCKATOOS.
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LARGER IMAGE
Within this great Picarian order there are two large sub-orders, called respectively the Scansorial and the Fissirostral[232] Picariæ. The Scansorial birds are also sometimes known as the Zygodactylæ,[233] or yoke-footed birds, because they have their toes arranged in pairs, two in front and two behind, and their name of Scansores is given to them because most of them are climbing birds, and run up trees and rocks with great facility, though in different ways. Parrots, for instance, use their bills in climbing from branch to branch, while Woodpeckers have very powerful feet and stiffened tail-feathers, which support them as they cling to the bark of the trees, the bill being chiefly employed to prise off the bark in order to get at the insects underneath. Cuckoos do not climb trees in the same manner as the Woodpeckers, though they have true zygodactyle feet: the present writer has, however, seen a common Cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) cling with both feet to the trunk of a huge elm while it picked off insects from the bark. It must not be supposed, however, that the above are the only birds which climb trees, for among the true Passeres, or perching birds, there occur such birds as the Dendrocolaptidæ in South America, who have stiffened tails exactly as the Woodpeckers, while the Tree-creepers are just as expert as the last-named birds, and yet cannot be placed in the same order as the Scansorial (Picariæ), for they possess a simple passerine foot, with three toes in front and one behind.
The Fissirostres, or wide-gaping birds, are also called Gressorial Picariæ, as their toes are more or less connected together, which gives them a very flat sole to the foot. They generally hunt for their food from some selected spot, ordinarily a post or a dead bough, whence they take flights after their prey, usually returning to the same spot to devour it. Their flight is active and swift, their gape extremely large, and the head correspondingly big, and in many instances clumsy and ungainly. The feet are generally small and weak.
SUB-ORDER I.—ZYGODACTYLÆ.
FAMILY I.—THE PARROTS (Psittaci).
Just as the Monkeys have been placed at the head of the Mammalia on account of their high development, so the Parrots, from their general cleverness, and especially on account of the facility with which they can talk, have been considered the highest order of birds, and placed at the beginning of the class. It is impossible for some people to avoid the conclusion that these birds think and reason, and the à propos or sometimes mal à propos way in which they introduce speeches, coupled with the look of wisdom which they assume while being spoken to, seems to show that the brain is being employed in thinking. A friend in Manchester told the writer of a parrot-show in the North of England, where the talking powers of each bird were made the subject of a prize competition. Several of the birds had exhibited their prowess, and at last the cover was removed from the cage of a Grey Parrot, who at once exclaimed, on seeing the company to which he was suddenly introduced, “By Jove! what a lot of Parrots!” an observation which gained him the prize at once. Instances of famous talking birds might be multiplied by the hundred, and it is wonderful to read some of the stories which have been related of Parrots, whose fame has been recorded in many popular works, leaving no doubt that these birds often possess the power of reason of a very high order; at the same time, it must be confessed that many of the Corvine birds, such as Ravens, Jackdaws, and Magpies, do not fall far short of their Scansorial friends.
The Parrots are divided into two large sections, firstly the Parrots proper (Psittaci proprii), and secondly the straight-billed Parrots (Psittaci orthognathi[234]). These two sections together contain six families, of which five belong to the first and one to the second. The true Parrots have a powerful and swollen bill, especially as regards the lower mandible, which is much inflated, curved, and flattened in front, the cutting edges (tomium) indented just behind their tip. The sub-family which has to be noticed first are the Camptolophinæ[235] or Cockatoos, which are birds entirely of the Australian region, being confined to Australia and the Molucca Islands. The bill is higher than it is broad, with a very distinct indentation of each side of the cutting edge of the mandible, the tip of the bill short, rather strong and perpendicular, the head crested in all except the Pygmy Parrots (Nasiterna). This family contains at once the largest and the smallest of the Parrots.
THE GREAT PALM COCKATOO (Microglossus[236] aterrimus[237]).
This is one of the most powerful of all the Parrot tribe, measuring about twenty-four inches in length, and having a bill of unusual thickness and power. Its black plumage also renders it a conspicuous species, the only relief to this sombre colouring being the greyish crest and the dull crimson cheeks. Its home is New Guinea, but it is also found in the Cape York Peninsula in Australia, where it was discovered by John Macgillivray during the voyage of the Rattlesnake. He writes as follows respecting it:—“This very fine bird, which is not uncommon in the vicinity of Cape York, was usually found in the densest scrub among the tops of the tallest trees, but was occasionally seen in the open forest land perched on the largest of the Eucalypti, apparently resting on its passage from one belt of trees or patch of scrub to another. Like the Black Cockatoos, or Calyptorhynchi, it flies slowly and usually but a short distance. In November, 1849, the period of our last visit to Cape York, it was always found in pairs, very shy, and difficult of approach. Its cry is merely a low short whistle of a single note, which may be represented by the letters ‘Hweet-Hweet.’ The stomach of the first one killed contained a few small pieces of quartz and triturated fragments of palm-cabbage, with which the crop of another specimen was completely filled; and the idea immediately suggests itself, that the powerful bill of this bird is a most fitting instrument for stripping off the leaves near the summits of the Seaforthia elegans and other palms to enable it to arrive at the central tender shoot.”