664 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



above the heel like a wading-bird. The " contour feathers " have a 

 large dowuy " after-shaft," a characteristic of gallinaceous birds, and 

 there is a thick, wattle-like caruncle on the forehead, a common feature 

 of the swan family. 



The intestinal canal presents first a large crop^ a rather Xoxv^pro- 

 ve7itriculus or true stomach, well furnished with tubular follicles, a 

 decidedly muscular gizzard or grinding-stomach, and two long append- 

 ages, the caeca, all features which are characteristic of gallinaceous 

 birds. On the other hand we find the gastric follicles large and tubu- 

 lar, more like those of the swan than of any other that I know of, and 

 quite unlike the lobulated follicles of the Gallince. The tendinous 

 parts of the gizzard, moreover, are at the sides, instead of before and 

 behind as is the (almost ?) universal rule. 



It would probably be neither interesting nor profitable to recapit- 

 ulate here the various resemblances to and difierences from other 

 families, presented by the bony framework of the chionis. The feat- 

 ures of the skull are pretty evenly balanced between those character- 

 istic of the plovers and of the gulls, with a slight sprinkling of the 

 ostrich. The breastbone, a part to which great importance is attached 

 by ornithologists in the determination of afiinities, is decidedly like 

 that of the gull family, between which and the plovers, considering 

 only the skeleton, the genus must probably be placed, as De Blainville 

 has already decided. That is to say, on summing up the various oste- 

 ological peculiarities which mark the skeleton of this very composite 

 bird, the greatest number is found to lie on the gull side. 



Considered with regard to habits, however, the confusion grows 

 worse again. It looks and flies like a pigeon, croaks like a crow, 

 " chats " like a blackbird, or (in confinement) chirps like a fowl. It 

 lives, to be sure, upon the seacoast, and feeds largely upon small marine 

 animals and seaweed ; but it dislikes wading, becomes perfectly help- 

 less when accidentally in the water, and has no idea of swimming. 

 Its diet is as various as that of fowls, and like them it swallows num- 

 bers of pebbles to aid digestion. Its natural tendencies seem to be 

 toward domestication, or at least companionship with man. Like the 

 plants of Kerguelen, it finds its nearest relatives in Patagonia, although 

 Africa is so much less distant. How shall we explain all these incon- 

 gruities ? Perhaps it represents an older, more synthetic form, from 

 which GaUince, Waders, and Gidls, are descended, preserving its own 

 identity by its isolated habitat. Perhaps, as the ostrich represents an 

 ancestral type, its apparent struthious characters may indicate real 

 relationship after all, handed down from that distant time when all 

 birds were more nearly allied than now. Since there certainly once 

 was a time when Kerguelen Island, perhaps then part of a continent, 

 was habitable, when the tree trunks that are now lying buried in its 

 northern hills were upright and flourishing forests, perhaps the men 

 of those days had also a bird tamed, like the domestic fowl ; and per- 



