138 



HIGH SCHOOL ZOOLOGY. 



the most elegantly formed of the group. More famiHar thau these 

 marine forms are the Loons ( Urinator) and the Grebes (Podicipulce), the 

 latter with the toes merely fringed, the former with the toes entirely 

 webbed. 



18. In contrast with these forms are the long-winged swimmers 

 (Longipennes), in which the length of the wing is due to tlie length of 

 the arm-bones, not of the hand. They are excellent fliers, and sweep 

 down upon the sea and inland 

 ^tikes for the aquatic animals 

 (ehiefly lish) on which they live. 

 The three front toes are web- 

 Ijcd,. the first, free and often ru- 

 dimentary. Tlie gulls ( La rits). 

 Terns (Sterna), and tlie Jicgers 

 {Si.crcorarlus) all belong to this 

 group. Nearly allied to it are 

 tlvc marine petrels, to which 

 snifill forms like the stormy 

 pe-trel Qr Mother Carey's cliick- 

 cji {Procdla7-'ia iKlaijka) be- 

 long, ai^d the giant albatross, 

 fjionmlea exulans, with a 

 wing-gpread of 15 feet. The 

 nostrils of the latter, however, 

 are tubular, not mere fissures 

 as in the gidls, etc. ; tlicy are, 

 therefore, often regarded as a 

 distinct order (Turbinares). 



19. The Steganopodes have 

 received their name from the 

 complete webbing of the toes, 

 the first toe Ijeing turned for- 

 ward and united by a mem- 

 brane to the second. They are all fish -eating birds, but embrace 

 Buoh different forms as tlie tropic and frigate birds {Phacfhori and 

 Tnchypfifr.^), the darters {PIoIuh), gannets (Sula), and, more familiar in - 

 land, the connoranta {Phalacrocoraa), and pelicans (Pelecanm). The 

 eingular mandibular pouch of the last genus marks it from the others. 



20. Unlike the above, the Ducks and their allies (Anseres) have the 



r^^r 



Fig. 99.— Great Auk. Plautus impennis. 

 (after Brehm.) 



