165 



PALAMEDEA. 



PALEMONID^E. 



166 



feathers capable of elevation ; head and upper part of the neck downy ; 

 a black collar; the rest of the plumage lead-colour and blackish, 

 with a white spot on the bend of the wing and another on the base 

 of some of the greater quills; hardly any part of the leg naked. 

 Length of adult, 32 inches. 



This in the Chaia or C 'haja of the people of Paraguay. 



thuja (Ciiauna Ciiararin). 



U'Azara has given us many interesting particulars relating to this 

 bird. IU sharp clarion-like cry is exerted not only during the day, 

 but also in the night, if it hears any noise. The note of the male is 

 expressed by the word Chaja, and that of the female (for they answer 

 each other) by the word Cbajali. They nre seen sometimes singly, 

 sometimes in pairs, and at other times in numerous Socks. They 

 principally, indeed ordinarily, frequent marshes, and if they are at any 

 time found on the banks of rivers, it is in places where the water is 

 low and runs sluggishly. They do not swim, but enter the water like 

 Herons, but not, like them, in search of fish or frogs, but for the 

 leaves and seeds of aquatic plants on which they live. 



D'Azara saw some brought up among the domestic poultry at 

 country-houses, and they were as tame as fowls. Those who kept 

 them told him that the Chnia ate bits of raw meat, but he saw them 

 picking the grass. They perch on the tops of the highest trees. On 

 the ground they walk with gravity. Some stato that the nests are 

 spacious, and formed of small branches on bushes surrounded with 

 water, and others that the bird places it in the rushes in the midst of 

 the water. The eggs are laid in the beginning of August, and the 

 young, which are two in number, follow their parents, though they 

 arc only clothed with down. 



The Indians of Carthagena rear them among their geese and other 

 poultry, under the idea that they will act as a guard, for the Chaia is 

 very courageous and will drive away a vulture. D'Azara eays that 

 both this bird and the Kamichi are provided with a cottony down at 

 the base of the feathers like swansdown ; that the plumage of the neck 

 is a little loose and inclining to downy ; and that the skin of the neck 

 is separated from the flesh by an interval of a line and a half, which 

 is filled with cellular integuments, into which the air is introduced. 

 The down at the base of the plumage is evidently calculated to keep 

 up the proper temperature of the bird in its marshy home, and to repel 

 the water when it wades BO deep as to immerse the plumage. 



It is a native of Paraguay, on both banks of the Rio de la Plata, and 

 in Brazil, far from human habitations. 



This genus Chauna was established by llliger for the purpose of 

 separating from the Kamichi, the Parra Chavaria of Linmeus, the 

 if D'Azara. Cuvier, as we have seen, did not separate it from 

 Palamedea, and M. Temminck, in his 'Analysis,' in mentioning the 

 genus Chacaria, expresses his opinion that the Chaia ought not to 

 form more than a species of Kamichi. The same author has subse- 

 quently, in hi ' Planches Coloiiees,' placed it with that genus. Mr. 

 Swainaon arranges it as a species of Palamedea under the name of 

 Palamtdea crittata. The general opinion stems to be that the bird 

 should be considered as a species of the genus Palamedea, and that 

 the genus Chauna should be obliterated. 



PALAMEDEID^E. [PALAMEDEA.] 



PALAKUS. [LARRIDJI] 



PALATE is the partition which separates the cavity of the mouth 

 from that of the nose, forming the roof of the one and the floor of 

 the other. In man it is composed of two portions, which are called 

 respectively the hard and the soft palate : the former is made up of 

 the inferior or palatine processes of each superior maxillary bone and 

 palate bone, which, meeting in the middle line of the body, form a 

 somewhat flattened arch over the mouth ; the latter consists of a 

 membranous curtain of muscular and cellular tissue, of which one 

 margin is attached to the posterior border of the hard palate, and the 

 other, with the uvula appended to its middle, hanga loosely backwards 

 into the cavity of the pharynx. Both the hard and the soft palate 

 are covered by a thin layer of vascular mucous membrane, im- 

 mediately beneath which there are numerous minute glands. On each 

 side, the soft palate is continued downwards in two diverging and 

 arched membranous folds (the arches of the palate), which form the 

 lateral boundaries of the fauces, and between which on each side the 

 tonsil lies. Beneath these folds are muscles passing from the soft 

 palate to the sides of the tongue and pharynx. 



The hard palate serves as a firm support against which the food 

 may be pressed by the back of the tongue during mastication ; and 

 it is by the various actions of the tongue upon it that we articulate 

 several letters, as d, g, j, k, q, &c. The soft palate is capable of such 

 motions by the contractions of its muscles, that it can either be raised 

 so as to close the passage from the pharynx to the nose and Eustachiau 

 tube, or be depressed so as (with the assistance of the tongue) to close 

 the passage from the pharynx to the mouth, or even to close both 

 those apertures. By a simultaneous descent of the soft palate and 

 contraction of the lateral arches by which it is connected with the 

 tongue, the food when forced to the back part of the latter organ is 

 impelled into the pharynx, constituting the first part of the act of 

 swallowing. The soft palate is also of great importance in the actions 

 by which substances are expelled from the digestive and respiratory 

 organs through the mouth or nose, directing their passage, according 

 to circumstances, into one or other of those cavities, as in coughing, 

 sneezing, vomiting, Ac. 



PALEA. [CALATHIDIUM.] 



PALECHI'NUS, a genus of Fossil JSchinoderuuUa. 



PALEMON. [PALKMONID*.] 



PALEMONIDyE, a family or tribe of Macrurous Decapodous 

 Ciiutacea. They belong to Milne-Edwards' s family of SaHcotjv.es, or 

 Shrimps, and his tribe Palemoniaus. The characters of this tribe are 

 as follows : Body laterally compressed, but the abdomen never sharp. 

 Thorax large, carapace armed in front with a great sabre-like rostrum, 

 nearly always dentated above. Antenna: placed as in the precediug 

 tribe, but longer, and the first pair often with three terminal filaments. 

 All the feet are slender, and the first two pairs are generally didac- 

 tylous, whilst the last three pairs are never didactylous. The 

 abdomen is of great size. (Milne-Edwards.) 



The genera are, (Inatltophyllum ; Hippolyte;- Rhynchocinetei, Pan- 

 datui ; LyiMiata ; and Palenion. 



(I'nalkophylluiii (Latreille ; Driuio, Risso). Kostrum short but com- 

 pressed, lamellar, and dentilated on its superior edge. Upper antenna; 

 terminated by very short filament.", and blade of the lower antenna* 

 rather large and oval. The external jaw-feet are foliaceous. First 

 two pairs of feet moderate and terminated by a didactylous hand ; 

 the last three pairs monodactylpus, of moderate length, and terminated 

 by a small dentated tarsus. Abdomen presenting nothing remarkable. 

 (Milne-Edwards.) 



Q. elegant has the carapace convex, rostrum oblique, and armed 

 above with from six to seven teeth ; second pair of feet rather longer 

 and stouter than the first pair; terminal blades of the abdomen oval. 

 Length about 20 lines. It is found at Nice. 



IHiHiolyte (Leach). General form of the body resembling that of 

 Palemon, but their abdomen is incapable of being completely 

 straightened, and appears, in some degree, to be humped ; rostrum 

 very large, compressed, and nearly always strongly dentated ; internal 

 antenmc small, and terminated only by two multi-articulate filaments 

 nearly of equal length, one of which is very large and strongly ciliated ; 

 external antenna; inserted under the preceding, and presenting nothing 

 remarkable; external jaw-feet slender and elongated. Feet formed 

 nearly in the same manner as those of Li/amata, only that they oiler 

 no appendage at their base ; the first pair are short, but rather stout ; 

 the second are filiform, terminated by an extremely small didactylous 

 hand, and have a multi-articulate carpus ; the last three pairs of feet 

 are rather long, and in general very spiny at the end ; the termiunl 

 plates of the natatory false-feet nre lanceolate, dentilated on their 

 edges, and ciliated all round. Bronchia; 7 on each side. (M.-Edwards.) 



The species, which are rather numerous, and all small in size, are 

 divided by M. Milne-Edwards into the following sections : 



1. Species whose rostrum springs from the front and is not con- 

 tinued backwards, with an elevated crest occupying the 

 median line of the carapace. 



//. variant. Rostrum passing beyond the peduncle of the internal 

 antenna;, straight, slender, and armed with two teeth above one 

 situated at its base ,and the other near its extremity and two lu'lo v, 



