511 



JACANAS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



Considered collectively the birds of this family bear a general 

 modified resemblance to the Rasores, or rather to the Perdi- 

 cinse. Our Corn Crake is not very unlike some Partridges, 

 and our Water-hen has been so named on account of its 

 manifest similarity to the female of the domestic fowl. The 

 genera of which it is composed, namely, Aramus, Rallus, 

 Parra, Crex, Gallinula, Porphyrio, and Fulica, present the 

 following characters : — 



Their body is always much, often extremely compressed ; 

 their wings short, convex, and rounded, with a prominent 

 sometimes horned knob on the head of the metacarpus ; their 

 feet very large, their toes are excessively elongated; their 

 neck of moderate length ; their head small, oblong, and much 

 compressed. 



The bill is of moderate length, straight, stout, much com- 

 pressed ; the upper mandible with its dorsal outline sloping, 

 convex toward the end, the edges sharp, slightly inflected, 

 with an obscure notch close to the hard rather acute tip, 

 lower mandible with the angle narrow and long, the dorsal 

 line ascending and straight, the sides nearly perpendicular, 

 the nasal groove long, rather wide, and bare, or obliterated. 

 The gape-line nearly straight. 



Both mandibles are concave within, the lower more 

 deeply ; the palate fiat and papillate. The tongue fleshy, 

 oblong or slender, with a few short papillae at the base, the 

 tip thin, obtuse and lacerate. Throat narrow ; oesophagus 

 of moderate capacity, without crop or remarkable dilatation ; 

 proventriculus oblong, with large oblong glandules ; stomach 



