Bill short, extremely strong; upper mandible movable, cered and
strongly hooked as in the birds of prey; toes four, the outer toe
permanently reversed; tarsus short and stout, covered with small
scales. Eggs pure white, seldom with any gloss; oval, or rarely
spheroidal; deposited in hollow trees.
Families.
a1. Hook of bill underneath nearly smooth or with very
superficial longitudinal ridges, but with no distinct file-like
surface. ... Loriidæ (p. 272)
a2. Hook of bill underneath with a series of transverse ridges more
or less bent along the median line and producing a file-like surface.
b1. Head crested; plumage nearly all white. ... Cacatuidæ (p. 273)
b2. Head without crest; plumage nearly all green, or green and blue,
never white. ... Psittacidæ (p. 275)
Family LORIIDÆ.
"Bill much compressed, generally longer than deep, not notched,
and smooth; culmen rounded and narrow; lower mandible rather long,
with the gonys narrow, straight, and obliquely slanting upward, not
flattened in front and with no keel-like ridge; upper mandible with
no file-like surface on the under surface of the hook; tongue brushy;
cere broader over the culmen and gradually becoming narrower along
the sides of the bill; * * * wing acute, with the three first quills
generally the longest." (Salvadori.) In the single Philippine species
the forehead is "dark rosy red."
Genus TRICHOGLOSSUS Vigors and Horsfield, 1826.
Characters same as those given for the Family.