WATER BIRDS. 



65 



mutual rchUioiiships of the watur birds. Their position and sequence has consequently 

 been completely changed, and the aspect of that part of the system is quite upset. 

 Ornithologists of the old school will have some difliculty in lofatin^ themselves. 



Instead of the two old orders, Xatatores and (irallatores, or three with the addition 

 of the Ilerodiones, the modern researches have revealed four eentres of relationship, 

 which may be styled Phivialiformes, Anseriformes, Cironiift)rmes, and Peleeani- 

 formes, — the three latter forming the desmognathous, the first-mentioned group the 

 schizognathous series. The latter series more especially comprises the birds which 

 usually constitute the orders Pygopodes, Longi]K'mies and Limicola;, the twri first men- 

 tioned being here merged into Cecomor]>ha', according to Professor Huxley's view. 

 The arrangement may not be regarded as final, however, for there are reasons to sus- 

 pect that it will be necessary, ere long, to divide the schizognathous swimmers into 

 three orders, Eretinopodes for the first 

 two superf.-nnilics of the present arrange- 

 ment, Tubinares for the superfaniily 

 Procellaroidese, and Pluviales for the 

 rest of the memljcrs of the two orders. 



The fact is, that not only are the 

 gulls very nearly allied to tlie auks, but 

 their affinities with the Gralla?, through 

 the plovers, are unniistid'Cable. On the 

 otlier liand, the grebes seem to be only 

 distantly rel:ited to the other ' Pygo- 

 podes,' and tiie ]iuttins and albatrosses 

 similarly so to the ' Longipennes ' or 

 gulls. But there is one feature of more 

 novel systems which we are not willing 

 to adopt, viz., the j>osition of the plovei's 

 at the base of the series as the most 

 generalized forms. That in these birds 

 some anatomical features of quite a gen- 

 eralized character remain during the 

 whole lifetime, while in the gulls they 

 are oidy ])resent in the embryonic state, 

 is no argument in favor of the view of 

 the latter being only a degraded branch 

 of the former, since wc find ample j)roof 

 all through the class that one or more 

 characters of the ancestral stock may 

 survive in a highly specialized group, while they may be lost comparatively early in 

 another, which, on the whole, has dejiarted only slightly from the common ancestor. 

 Our knowledge of these birds is as yet ])articularly deficient concerning the degree of 

 attinity between the dilt"erent forms, and it will therefore be found that in the follow- 

 ing we have given the generally adopted se(|uencc the benefit of the doubt. 



As stated above, the members of this order are strictly schizognathous; another 

 cranial feature is that they are schizorhinal. Their j)almate feet will serve to distin- 

 guish them externally, a feature which, among the Grallaa, is only found in the avocets, 

 which are not easily confounded with the birds here in question on account of their 



VOL. IV. —5 



Fio. 2y. — 2>keletoii ut" ( oli/initu^ cn^lalM, 



