1052 



^^ YS TEMA TIC S YNOPSIS. — P YGOPODES — PODICIPEDES. 



T . 



-F Ij 



T 



more or less corresponding with curve of culinen, usually sinuate at base; under outline in 

 general convex, vi^ith slight gouydeal angle or none ; sides more or less striate. Nasal fossae 

 vpell marked ; nostrils near their end, linear and pervious (broader in Podilymhus), upper edge 

 straight, not lobed. Frontal extension of feathers considerable, and usually antiae run still 

 further into the nasal fossae. A groove along symphysis of mandible extends often nearly to 



tip. Eyes far forward, with a loral strip of bare skin thence to 

 base of upper mandible, very narrow in typical forms, broader 

 in Podilymhus. Head usually adorned in breeding season with 

 variously lengthened colored crests or ruffs ; when these are 

 wanting the frontal feathers may be bristly. Neck usually long, 

 slender, and sinuous. Plumage thick and compact, smoothly 

 imbricated above, below of a peculiar smooth, satiny texture, 

 which brings it into great repute for trimming the hats of women 

 whose primitive tastes betray their savagery. Wings short but 

 ample, very concavo-convex ; developed primaries eleven (alto- 

 gether twelve), narrow, somewhat falcate, graduated, the outer 

 three or four attenuate on one or both webs; most secondaries 

 short and broad, but inner ones lengthened to hide the rest of the 

 remiges when the wing is closed ; bastard quills unusually long, 

 reaching over half-way to ends of primaries ; greater coverts also 

 very long. Tail rudimentary, represented by a tuft of downy 

 feathers. Characters of the feet peculiar — for in other lobe-footed 

 birds, as Phalaropes and Coots, the lobation is of a different 

 character. Tarsus extremely compressed, with only a slightly 

 thickened tract within which the tendons pass, its front edge a single smooth row of overlap- 

 ping, the hinder serrate with a double row of pointed, scales ; sides regularly, transversely scu- 

 tellate, as are upper surfaces of toes; latter inferiorly reticulate, with an edging of pectinated 

 scales. Toes flattened out and further widened with broad lobes, especially wide toward end, 

 and at base connected for a varying distance by interdigital webs. Hind toe highly elevated, 

 broadly lobate, free. Claws short, broad, flat, obtuse, of squarish shape something like human 

 finger- nails; that of the hallux minute. 



Grebes are so strongly marked by the foregoing characters, especially of feet and tail, that 

 some authors, including the A. O. U. Committee, rank them as a suborder Podicipedes of the 

 order Pygopodes to be alone contrasted with the Loons and Auks together. There is some- 

 thing to be said in favor of this view, but it is better to have three suborders, if any, and rank 

 them as equidistant from one another. Principal internal characters are absence of right caro- 

 tid, and of ambiens, femorocaudal, and accessory semitendinosus muscles (leg formula BX 

 minus ambiens, as against A B X plus ambiens in Loons) ; sternotracheal muscles asymmet- 

 rical ; greater number of cervical vertebrfe (15-19) ; fusion of one or more thoracic verte- 

 brae ; shortness of sternum, whose lateral )irocesses reach beyond the transverse median 



Fio. 712. — F, fibula; T, 

 tibia, with o, its cnemial process, 

 and -P, large patella, of a Grebe, 

 nat. size. 



waive that point, as there is actually a genus '■'■ Podioeps " or Podicipes in this family, to furnish a corresponding title. 

 But I cannot follow those who write the family name ''^Podic>pid(e." By no rule of faith or morals can such a bogus 

 •word be justified. The A. O. U. uses the generic word "PofZicfps," copying the original misprint or other blunder of 

 Latham, 1790. Very well : then the proper form of the family name would be Podicipitidce. For if '■'■ Podiceps '" is 

 mistaken to end in -eeps, a term meaning "head," its genitive is -cipiiis, and the same is its combining form (like 

 anceps, gen. ancipilis, etc.). But in fact the formation of the word is podex, gen. podicis, the rump, ax\ii pes, gen. pedis, 

 the foot, giving Podicipes, the correct literal translation into Latin of the English name which was formerly in good 

 literary use for Grebes. And consequently the proper form of the family name is Podici-ped-id^, as above. This term 

 is precisely equivalent to the name of the order Pygopodes, which is derived from tlie Greek wyri, pyge, the rump, but- 

 tocks, nates, and n-oii?, pous, gen. ttoSos, podos, the foot. So " Podicipidce" is literally as well as figuratively a "head 

 over heels " affair, which requires to be set on its stern, or stood on its feet — not on its head. 



