Vv ILELIORNITHIDAE 267 
drawn whistle, the food consists mainly of small fish and insects, 
which the bird spears by darting out its head quickly. The nest, said 
to be made of sticks, vrass, and mud, with a lining of the latter, 
is placed on low branches, and contains several eggs similar to those 
of the Kagu, but smaller. Both parents incubate and attend to 
the young, which have several times been reared in the Zoological 
Society's Gardens in London." 
Fam. IX. Heliornithidae——The Finfoots, comprising three 
genera and four species, now generally coupled with the Rallidae, 
have been placed near the Divers and Grebes by several authors. 
The head is small, the neck thin, the bill Rail-like and fairly stout ; 
the metatarsus, which is scutellated anteriorly and reticulated pos- 
teriorly, is short, twisted outwards, and deeply grooved; while the 
toes have short, sharp claws, and broad scalloped webs, extending 
in Heliornis to most of their length. The long pointed wings 
have twenty-one remiges, of which eleven are primaries, and are 
armed with a curved spine ; the tail consists in Podica of eighteen 
elongated, stiff, ribbed rectrices, which are narrow and pointed, and 
in Heliopais and Heliornis of rather soft, short, rounded feathers. 
The plumage is close, but not glossy as in Grebes; there is no 
after-shaft, the U-shaped furcula ancyloses with the sternum, the 
tongue is lanceolate, and the nostrils are pervious. 
These birds, which frequent the swamps or rocky streams of 
inland woods, are very shy; their flight is heavy, and they rise 
with difficulty from the surface of the water, aiding themselves 
by their feet. They swim and dive well, and will remain _half- 
submerged for hours, or will sit wpon a low branch over a stream, 
dropping down and scrambling up the bank when disturbed, or 
hiding at its base. They are said, moreover, to run swiftly on land. 
The note of Heliornis fulica is like a dog’s bark ; the food is in all 
cases of small fish, crustaceans, insects, and seeds. The nest and eggs 
are unknown, but in the species just mentioned the nestlings are 
stated to be naked. This form, about thirteen inches long, which 
ranges from Guatemala to Paraguay, 1s olive-brown above, the 
black head and nape being separated by a white band down each 
side of the neck from a blackish line which encloses the white 
throat ; the chest is buff, the sides are brown, the remaining under- 
parts whitish ; the bill is red, the feet are yellow, banded with 
black, Podica senegalensis of West Africa, and the doubtfully dis- 
1 P.Z.S. 1866, p. 76. 
