21 AVES: PYGOPODES. — XXXI. 
ai. Bill not both strongly hooked and eered. 
k. Hind toe short, decidedly elevated; toes semipalmate; no soft membrane 
about nostrils; schizognathous. .. . . . GALLINa®, XXXIX. 
kk. Hind toe little if at all above level of the rest (rarely absent). 
1, Nostrils opening beneath a soft swollen cere like membrane; hind 
claw short; doves. = 4 (ss erie tice CoLumBs, XL. 
ll. Nostrils not opening beneath a aration emnibe ane or cere. 
m. Hind claw not lunger than the others; mostly desmognathous. 
(Picarie.) 
n. Wings not very long; gape not very wide nor deeply cleft. Feet 
zygodactyle or syndactyle. (Toes 2 in front, or if 3, then the 
outer and middle toes connected for at least half their length 
in our species.) 
o. Tail feathers soft; bill not chisel-like. . . Coccyers, XLIII. 
oo. Tail feathers stiff and eam bill adapted for striking or 
boring.) a | wnat bes ike etl ee he eee 
nn. Wings very long, with 10 primaries (tail of 10 feathers and bill 
fissirostral, or else secondaries 6 and bill tenuirostral); toes 3 
in front, 1 behind, the hinder a little elevated. 
Macrocnuires, XLV. 
mm. Hind claw at least as long as middle claw; toes always 38 in front, 
1 behind, cleft to the base or with the basal joints only immov- 
ably coherent; palate egithognathous.. . Passreres, XLVI. 
OrperR XXXI. PYGOPODES. (Tue Drvrne Birps.) 
Feet palmate or lobate; tibia feathered, included in the skin 
nearly to the heel-joint, hence the legs set far back, so that the birds 
are scarcely able to walk at all on land; hind toe small and ele- 
vated, or wanting; nostrils developed ; bill horny, not lamellate or 
serrate; no gular pouch; palate schizognathous ; wings very short; 
tail very short or rudimentary. 
This is apparently not a natural order. Stejneger (following 
Huxley) unites the Pygopodes, Longipennes and Tubinares in one 
order, Cecomorphe. He remarks: “The fact is that not only 
are the gulls very nearly related to the auks, but their affinities 
with the Gralle through the plovers are unmistakable. On the 
other hand, the grebes seem to be only distantly related to the other 
‘ Pygopodes’ and the i and albatrosses similarly so to the 
Longipennes or gulls.” The Pygopodes are water birds, expert 
divers, feeding chiefly on fishes. (avyn, rump; srovs, foot.) 
Families of Pygopodes. 
a. Tail feathers wanting; anterior toes lobed, the claws very broad, flat, 
rounded at tip, resembling human nails. . . . . Popiciprp#, 124. 
aa. Tail feathers developed, but short. 
b. Toes 4; the hind toe present. . . . . . . . URINATORIDA#, 125. 
bb. Toes 3, the hind toe wanting. «..., . .j. «'+ - » ALCmDay 226, 
