PALMIPEDES. 163 



RHYNCHOPS, Linnceus. 



The Skimmers resemble the terns in their small feet, long wings and forked 

 tail, but are distinguished from all birds by their extraordinary bill, the upper 

 mandible of which is shorter than the other, both being flattened so as to form 

 simple blades, which meet without clasping. Their only mode of feeding is 

 by skimming their aliment from the surface of the water with the lower 

 mandible, which they effect while on the wing. One species only is known. 



Rhyn. nigra, Lin. (The Black Skimmer), is white; back, shoulders, ana 

 upper part of the body black, a white band on the wing ; outside of the ex- 

 ternal quills of the tail white ; bill and feet red ; hardly as large as a pigeon. 

 From the vicinity of the Antilles. 



FAMILY III. 



TOTIPALMATTE: 



THE birds of this family are remarkable for having the thumb united with 

 the toes by one single membrane, a mode of organisa- 

 tion that renders their feet complete oars, notwith- 

 standing which, they perch upon trees, being almost 

 the only palmipedes who do so. They all fly well, and 

 have short feet. Linnaeus separated them into three 

 genera, the first of which it was necessary to subdivide. 



PELECANUS, Linnceus. 



The Pelicans comprise all those in which the base of the bill is found to 

 have some part destitute of feathers. Their nostrils are 

 fissures, the apertures of which are scarcely perceptible. 

 The skin of their throat is more or less extensible, and 

 their tongue very small. Their thin gizzard, with their 

 other stomachs, forms a large sac- 



The bill of the true Pelicans is very remarkable for its extreme length, its 

 straight, very broad, and horizontally flattened form, for the hook which 

 terminates it, and for the lower mandible whose flexible branches sustain a 

 naked membrane, susceptible of being dilated into a large sac. 



P. onocrotalus, Lin. (The Common Peh'can.) As large as a swan, entirely 

 white, slightly tinged with flesh colour ; the hook of the bill of a cherry-red ; 

 is more or less disseminated throughout the eastern continent, breeds in 

 marshes, and feeds exclusively on living fish. It is said to transport both 

 food and water in its sac. 



M <2 



