460 PANDION HALIAETUS. 



skull is very narrow over the orbits. The aperture of 

 the ear is small and circular. The cere is scurfy, bare 

 above and on the sides to behind the nostrils. The lo- 

 ral space is covered with short radiating curved bristles, 

 having- at the base a small tuft of very short barbs cir- 

 cularly disposed. 



The head is of moderate size, oblong, narrow before ; 

 the neck rather short and strong. The body is much 

 deeper than broad, compressed, but with very large 

 pectoral muscles. The legs are of great strength and 

 moderately long, the tibiae long, very muscular, some- 

 what compressed ; the tarsi very short, very thick, 

 fleshy, feathered anteriorly nearly half way down, co- 

 vered all round with projecting thick scales, of which 

 the anterior are larger and flattened, the posterior 

 smaller and more prominent, those at the upper part or 

 toward the joint flattened and subhexagonal ; on the 

 digito-tarsal joint anteriorly the scales are smaller, and 

 arranged in transverse series ; on the outer side of the 

 tarsus the scales are conical, and many of them bear a 

 rudimentary feather from the centre of the papilla. 

 The toes are extremely stout, very deep, scutellate 

 above towards the end, the rest of their upper parts 

 covered with flat thick scales, the sides and lower parts 

 with smaller roundish scales, those on the very large 

 tubercles beneath being conical, sharp, and rigid. On 

 the fom-th toe near the end internally is a cluster of 

 large pointed papillae, nine in number ; and there is a 

 smaller similar cluster on the opposite side of the mid- 

 dle toe. The first toe is very short, and capable of la- 

 teral motion ; the fourth largest, longer than the second, 

 and capable of being placed nearly at a right angle to 



