18 HISTORY OF THE 



attempt. (All birds naturally rise and alight facing the wind, 

 and the short-winged ones cannot well rise otherwise.) In 

 rising they spring with their feet, striking the air at the same 

 time vigorously with their wings, patting the water for some 

 distance; but once in the air can sustain themselves for a long 

 time, flying very swiftly and direct. When upon the ground 

 the birds cannot rise, and are almost helpless, shuffling and 

 floundering along, using both their wings and feet in a most awk- 

 ward manner; and for this reason the name they bear (which 

 signifies lame) was given them by the Laplanders. 



Their nests are built at or near the edge of the water, on 

 marshy or boggy grounds; they are quite bulky, and made of 

 water grasses, or plants at hand, with a mixture of slimy moss 

 and mud, with a place hollowed out in the center to fit the body. 

 Eggs usually two, but, according to Audubon and Nuttall, some- 

 times three; vary in size from 3.27x2.10 to 3.90x2.38. A 

 set collected May 10th, 1878, on Pewaukee Lake, Wisconsin, 

 measured 3.45x2.20 to 3.27x2.21. Ground color olive brown 

 to olivaceous drab, more or less spotted and occasionally blotched 

 with blackish brown; in form, vary from narrow oval to ellip- 

 tical ovate. 



ORDER LONGIPENNES. 



LONG-WINGED SWIMMERS. 



"Hind toe small or rudimentary, and elevated, sometimes almost obsolete; 

 anterior toes fully webbed. Bill more or less compressed (nearly cylindrical 

 only in some Stercorariidce), the nostrils linear, never tubular. Habits altricial; 

 young dasypsedic. Palate schizognathous. Carotids double." 



FAMILY LARID.32. GULLS AND TERNS. 



"Bill moderately compressed, or sometimes nearly cylindrical, its covering 

 entire; the tips of the maxilla overhanging, or at least meeting, that of the 

 mandible; the culmen more or less curved, but never arched terminally some- 

 times nearly straight throughout; symphysis of the mandible usually forming 

 more or less of an angle, this, in most cases, prominent in proportion to the 



