SCREAMERS. 



375 



greater part of their lives upon the water, where they swim with great buoyancy 

 and ease ; but it does not appear that they have ever been seen to dive, either 

 while feeding or when endeavouring to escape from threatened danger. They 

 fly with great strength and swiftness, and when on the wing are not easily 

 distinguished from the tringas, although when on land they are inferior to 

 them in lightness and agility. The lobed feet of the phalaropes give them, 

 however, a great advantage in enabling them to walk on the soft and oozy 

 mud which covers the sides of creeks and estuaries, among which they find 

 their principal food, consisting of msects, worms, and minute mollusca. Their 

 most remarkable habit seems to be that of alighting at sea on beds of floating 

 seaweed, upon which they run with light and nimble pace, after the manner 

 of a wagtail: they are often met with thus employed a hundred miles from 

 land. The phalarope builds a nest of grass in the marshes or on the islands 

 of inland lakes, and lays four eggs, of a dark olive colour, closely spotted with 

 black. 



The length of this species is seven inches. 



Perhaps the most interesting feature in connection with the phalaropes is 

 the lobed structure of the foot, presenting, as it does, the first approach towards 

 the swimming-foot of truly aquatic birds This consists in a projecting margin 

 or flap on each side of the anterior toes, which gradually becomes more com- 

 plete, until in some species {Pli. hyperboreiis and Fulicariiis) the membrane 

 on each side of the toes is not only enlarged, but divided into distinct lobes, 

 or deeply scalloped membranes, embracing two joints of the outer and one 

 of the inner toe. In consequence of this structure, we find these birds to be 

 excellent swimmers, making their way m the water with ease and elegance, 

 their attitudes much resembling those of the teal as they swim about on the 

 sea far from land. In the coots we shall presently see the further development 

 of this structure of the foot, merely observing in this place, that, in proportion 

 as it causes them to be expert divers and swimmers, they become exceedingly 

 bad walkers. 



FAMILY IV. 

 THE SCREAMERS. PALAMEDEID/E.* 



General Characteristics.— Bill generally long and slender, with the culmen de- 

 pressed, straight at the base, the apical parts vaulted, and the tip overhanging that 

 of the lower mandible, the gonys short and sometimes angulated ; the nostrils 

 lateral, generally placed near the middle of the bill, and longitudinal ; the wings 

 long, and generally armed at the. shoulder with an acute spine or blunt tubercle; 

 the tail generally short and slightly rounded ; the tarsi long and slender ; the toes 

 very long and slender, and furnished with long and straight, or short and slightly- 

 curved claws, the hind toe long, and furnished with a more or less long and acute 

 claw. 



Widely as we have already seen the feathered tribes distributed, 

 there are still localities to be met with as yet unfurnished with 



* From iraXdixTi, palame, the pdm of the hand: so called from their great extent of foot. 



