24 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. IX. 



Hind toe, elevated above the level of the others; bill, slender; 

 nostrils, opening through slits; sides of toes, webbed. 



Family PHALAROPODID^. Phalaropes. 



See pages 91, 93. 



GROUP 2. Toes, four; front toes, palmate (full webbed); 

 hind toe, not connected with front ones by web. 



Bill, straight and point- 

 ed; tarsus, flattened; hind 

 toe, with flap or lobe; feet, 

 placed far back near the 

 tail; tail, very short. 

 Family GAVIID^E. Loons. 

 See page 37. 



Nostrils, separate, not tubular; bill, with cere (a horny or skin- 

 like covering on base of upper mandible ) ; hind toe, sometimes very 

 small; end of upper mandible (unguis), swollen and somewhat 

 rounded; back and wings, always dark, sometimes sooty, sometimes 

 barred with brown; tail, never white or gray, usually very dark; 



middle tail feathers, longest, but only very long in adult birds, some- 

 times only slightly longer than rest of tail feathers in immature birds. 



