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LOBIPES. LOBEFOOT. 



It appears that only three species of this genus are 

 known. One of these I have not seen. From the other 

 two, which I have carefully examined, I derive the following 

 generic characters. They are small birds, of slender form, 

 with the body somewhat elongated ; the neck rather long 

 and slender ; the head small, compressed, with the forehead 

 elevated and rounded. 



Bill rather longer than the head, straight or very slightly 

 bent upwards, very slender, depressed, tapering ; upper man- 

 dible with the dorsal line straight, the ridge convex, flattened 

 at the base, the nasal groove extending nearly to the end, 

 the tip slender and pointed ; lower mandible with the angle 

 long and extremely narrow, the sides sloping outwards and 

 grooved for three-fourths, the tip acute. Mouth extremely 

 narrow ; tongue long, emarginate and papillate at the base, 

 presently contracted, extremely slender, horny, trigonal, 

 grooved above, tapering to a fine point ; oesophagus narrow, 

 nearly uniform ; proventriculus oblong ; stomach elliptical, 

 with strong lateral muscles, large tendons, and dense, longi- 

 tudinally rugous epithelium ; intestine of moderate length 

 and width ; coeca of moderate length, cylindrical, contracted 

 at the base. 



Eyes small ; nostrils basal, linear ; aperture of car 

 roundish, and of moderate size. Feet of moderate length, 

 slender ; tibia bare to a considerable extent ; tarsus mode- 

 rate, much compressed, thin-edged anteriorly ; the first tpe 

 diminutive ; the anterior toes of moderate length, the second 

 slightly shorter than the fourth, which is not much exceeded 

 by the third ; the three connected at the base by webs, of 

 which the outer is longer, and laterallv margined with a 



