252 PODICEPS CRTSTATUS. 



rior extremity of the body, the tibia, which is long, is enve- 

 loped by the skin, which leaves only a quarter of an inch of 

 it exposed and bare ; the tarsus short, extremely compressed, 

 having a breadth of scarcely two-twelfths of an inch, but a 

 depth of eight-twelfths at its lower part ; on its anterior edge 

 is a row of small scutella, twenty in number, externally three 

 rows of plates, and behind two series of small prominent 

 scales, separated by a groove. The first toe is very small, 

 elevated, with two lateral membranes, of which the outer or 

 upper is very narrow ; the anterior toes long, connected at 

 the base by a membrane, and having on both sides an ex- 

 panded margin, marked Avith oblique parallel lines ; the first 

 and second toes destitute of scutella, the third with thirty, 

 the fourth, which is longer, also with thirty, but both without 

 any toward the end. The claws are flattened, that of tlie 

 middle toe broader, and, with the fourth, serrulate, 



The plumage is very soft and blended, on the upper 

 parts slightly glossed, on the lower silky. There is on the 

 occiput a transverse crest of linear-oblong feathers, of which 

 the lateral are elongated into two tufts ; and on the sides and 

 upper part of the neck is a large ruff". The wings are small, 

 narroAV, acute, very concave, with eleven primaries, twenty- 

 four secondaries, and ten tertiaries or humerals. The second 

 quill is longest, the first scarcely two-twelfths shorter, the 

 other primaries rapidly graduated ; the secondaries abrupt, 

 with an acumen. The scapulars are very large and oblong. 

 The tail is a slight tuft of fourteen feathers, circularly 

 arranged, about an inch and a half long, with feeble shafts 

 and loose downy filaments. The first and second quills are 

 distinctly cut out on their inner web toward the end, the 

 second and third on the outer. 



The upper mandible has the ridge blackish-brown, the 

 sides carmine to beyond the nostrils, in the rest of their extent 

 and along the edge to the base yellowish-grey ; the lower 

 mandible carmine, with the edges and tip yellowish-grey. 

 The iris is bright carmine, the edges of the eyelids of a duller 

 tint of the same ; a bare space from the eye to the mouth 

 dusky-green. The tarsi are dusky-green externally, greenish- 

 yellow internally ; the toes dusky beneath, greenish-yellow 



