GRALLATor.LE. 351 



They have been divided into two tribes, according to the armature or 

 non-armature of their wings ; but this character is liable to exceptions. 



Jacanas*, i?;m.— ParraJ: , Lin. 



The Jacanas are greatly distinguished from the other Grallatoriae, by 

 having four very long toes, separated down to their root, the nails of 

 which, that of the thumb in particular, are also extremely long and pointed, 

 from which peculiarity they have received their vulgar name of Surgeons. 

 The bill is similar to that of the Lapwings, in its moderate length, and iu 

 the slight inflation of its end. Their wing is armed with a spur. They 

 are noisy and quarrelsome birds, which inhabit marshes of hot climates, 

 where they walk with great facility on the grass, by means of their long 

 toes. 



America produces some species, in which the base of the bill is covered 

 by a flat, naked membrane, which extends to part of the forehead. 



P.jacana, L., Enl. 322. (The Common Jacana). Black, with a 

 red mantle; the primary wing-quills green; fleshy wattles under the 

 bill; very sharp-pointed spurs. It is the most common species iu 

 all the hot climates of America ;{;. 

 Some of the same description are also found in Asia, 



P. cenea\\ ; P. svperciliosa, Horsf. (the Eronzcd Jacana birds), with 

 a black body reflecting blue and violet tints; mantle bronze-green; 

 rump and tail blood-red; anterior quills of the wiiig green; a white 

 streak behind the eye. Its spurs are blunt and small. 

 Others have been discovered in the east, in which this membrane is de- 

 ficient, and which are otherwise remarkable for some singular diii'erences 

 in the proportions of their quills. 



P. chinensis; Jacana aloncjue queue; Encycl. Method. Orn., pi. 

 61, f. 1; Vieill. Gal. 265. (The Long-tailed Jacana). Jirown ; 

 head, throat, front of the neck, and coverts of the wings, white ; 

 back of the neck furnished with silky feathers of a golden yellow ; a 

 small pediculated appendage to the end of some of the wing- quills; 

 four quills of the tail black, and longer than the body. The Chi- 

 rurgien de Lu^on of Sonnerat (P. luzionensis), is the young oi the 

 same: independently of some difference in the colours, it has not 

 yet acquired its long tail. 



* Jacana, or Jahana, is properly, in Brazil, the name of the Gallinula. The -bur- 

 geons are there called Aquapuazos, because they walk over the aquatic plants called 

 Aquape (Azzar.). It is possibly through an error of transcription that one of liieui 

 in Marcgrave is named Aguapeccaca. 



f Parra is the Latin name of some unknown bird. 



X The /. varie (P. variabilis), Enl. 846, is only the common species at an early 

 age. The P. brasilieiisis, and the P. nigra, exist only on the somewhat equivocal 

 authority of Marcgrave. The P. viridis, which also rests on the description of 

 Marcgrave, appears to me, from the description itself, to be a Porphyrio. The P. 

 africana. Lath., scarcely differs. As for the P. chavaria, see the following f.rtick' on 

 the Palamedese. 



II ^'itiliot lias changed this specific name into melancldoiis, Gai. 2G4. It is also 

 the P. superciliusa, Horsf. Jav. 



