Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

(Suborder Psittaci)

There is, perhaps, no other group of birds of similar rank that embraces so large a number of interesting and engaging members as the present, nor are there many groups more sharply circumscribed. As we have seen in so many other groups, it is the exception rather than the rule that each member falls easily within the prescribed lines of the group, there being usually”outliers”in this way or that, but not so with the Parrots, for each form, with the possible exception of the Owl-Parrot of New Zealand, measures up to the abstract idea of what a Parrot is supposed to be, and even the oldest fossil form of which we have any knowledge, occurring in the Miocene deposits of France, is just as distinctly a”Parrot”as any now living.

This similarity of appearance, which every tyro recognizes, probably argues for a very ancient origin and an early loss of the links connecting them with other groups. But, although they exhibit this general similarity of structure, the individual structural elements are so variously combined that it is difficult to decide which set of characters to give most value to in attempting to fix the relationships of the group, and we can well accept the edict of Mr. Beddard, who says that”the determination of the affinities of the Parrots to other groups of birds is one of the hardest problems in ornithology.”

They have often been placed next the Owls, with which they appear to have many — albeit superficial — points in common, but, in the light of the fullest modern information, it appears likely that their closest relationship is with the Cuckoos and Plantain-eaters, though, to quote again from Beddard,”it must be held that they have emerged from a low stock at a time not far removed from that at which the Cuculi and Musophagi also emerged, but that there is not a common starting of the three groups."

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