J56 A VMS. 



FULICA, Briixon. 



The True Coot*, ill addition to a. short beak and a large frontal shield, 

 have their toes much widened by a festooned border that renders them excel- 

 lent swimmers, in consequence of which their lives are passed in ponds and 

 marshes. Their polished plumage is not less adapted to this kind of life 

 than their conformation, and these birds establish an evident link between 

 the order of the GrallatoriiB and that of the Palmipedes. There is but one in 

 Europe. 



F. at, Gm. (The Coot.) The shield of a deep slate colour ; edge of the 

 wings whitish ; in the nuptial season the shield becomes red : found wherever 

 there is a pond. 



We will terminate this sketch of the Grallatorise with three genera, which 

 it is difficult to associate with any other, and which may be considered as 

 forming separately so many small families. 



CHIONIS, Foster. VAGINALIS, Latham. 



Or the Sheath-Bill*. Their legs are short, almost like those of the Gallina- 

 cese ; their tarsi scutellated, their bill stout and conical, having a hard sub- 

 stance enveloping its base, which, it appears, the bird has the power of raising 

 and depressing. 



Only one species is known, and that is from New Holland, Vag. chioni^ 

 Lath. It is the size of a partridge, with entirely white plumage. Jt haunts 

 the sea-coast, where it feeds on the dead animals thrown up by the waves. 



GLARKOLA. 



The beak of the Pratincoles is short, conical, arcuated throughout ; has a 

 large opening, and resembles that of the Gallinacese. Their excessively long 

 and pointed wings remind us of the Swallows, or of the Palmipedes of the 

 high seas ; their legs are of a moderate length, their tarsi scutellated, and their 

 external toes somewhat palmated ; their thumb touches the ground. Aquatic 

 worms and insects constitute their food. 



Our last genus will be that of 



PHOENICOPTERUS, Linnaeus, 



Or the Flamingos, one of the most extraordinary and insulated of all birds. 

 The legs are excessively long; the three anterior toes 

 J__ are palmated to their ends, and that of the hind one is 

 extremely short ; the neck quite as long and slender as 



the legs, and the small head furnished with a beak whose 

 lower mandible is an oval longitudinally bent into a 

 semi-cylindrical canal, while the upper one, oblong and 

 flat, is bent crosswise in its middle, so as to join the other exactly. The mem- 

 branous fossa? of the nostrils occupy nearly all the side of the part which is 

 behind the transverse fold, and the nostrils themselves are longitudinal slits in 

 ihe base of the fosse. The edges of the two mandibles are furnished with 



