CHECK LIST 



OF THE 



BIRDS OF ONTARIO. 



AVES (The Birds). 



A bird may be defined as an air-breathing vertebrate with a covering 

 of feathers ; warm blood ; a complete double circulation ; the two anterior 

 limbs (wings) adapted for flying or swimming, the two posterior limbs 

 (legs) apadted for walking or swimming ; respiration never effected by gill, 

 or branchiae, but after leaving the egg by lungs, which are connected with 

 air cavities in various parts of the body. Reproduction by eggs which 

 are hatched externally, either by incubation, or exposure to the heat -ji 

 the sun; the shell calcareous, hard and brittle. 



Order PYGOPODES. (Diving Birds.) 



Feet palmate or lobate; tibia feathered, included in the skin nearly 

 to the heel joint, hence the legs set far back so that the birds are scarcely 

 able to walk at all on land ; hind toe small and elevated or wanting ; bill 

 horny, not lamellate or serrate ; no gular pouch ; wings very short ; tail 

 very short or rudimentary. All are water birds, expert divers, feeding 

 chiefly on fishes. 



FAMILY PODICIPID^E (GREBES). 



Head with crests or ruffs in the breeding season except in Podilym- 

 bus. Under plumage dense, lustrous, mostly white. Wings very short ; 

 tail rudimentary, without distinct quills. Feet lobate, toes flattened, 

 provided with flat claws resembling human nails, tarsus scutellate, 

 compressed. All are aquatic. 



GENUS COLYMBUS. 



(2) Holbcell's Grebe. 



(Colymbus holbcelli.) 



A regular, but never a common, spring and autumn visitor to the 

 waters of southern Ontario. Probably breeds in the northern part of the 

 Provinc^. 



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