Cayenne Rail. 447 



elsewhere any tidings of the escape of any such captive. It 

 seems, therefore, but for the decisive verdict given above by 

 authority, as if it were permissible to imagine this specimen a 

 possible straggler from America. Most remarkable, however, is 

 the sequel to this tale : for now, after such close examination of 

 this stranger, Mr. Morres bethought him of a stuffed bird, of just 

 the same size and appearance, though not of such bright colour- 

 ing, with which he had been familiar for years, and which stood 

 in the hall of a friend, Mr. Edward Everett, now deceased. For 

 this bird Mr. Morres at once made diligent inquiry, and was so 

 fortunate as to recover it ; and on inspection it proved to be a 

 second specimen of Aramides Cayannensis, with the same 

 remarkable rufous and black feathers under the wing. As to 

 the history of this specimen, it was impossible to gain any 

 positive information, beyond that it had been shot many years 

 ago by some friend, and that Mr. Everett had had it set up. 

 But whether this was an escaped convict, or whether both birds 

 were mere roving Americans, voluntarily visiting the old country, 

 as so many Americans birds as well as men do every year, it 

 is impossible to say, though in a question so uncertain I would 

 claim, by common English law, that the prisoner should have 

 the benefit of the doubt. 



LOBIPEDUXE (LOBE-FEET). 



There is no more perfect example of the gradual transition 

 from one class of birds to another than is to be seen in the little 

 family of Lobe-feet. Occupying a position as they do at the end 

 of the Order of Waders, and immediately before that of the 

 Swimmers, we find them partaking of the anatomical structure 

 as well as the habits of both. They kave neither the stilted legs 

 and lengthened beaks of the one, nor have they the webbed feet 

 of the other, but yet they approach both these characteristics. 

 With slender naked legs of moderate length they possess feet of 

 a very remarkable structure, inasmuch as these are furnished 

 with a lateral development of membrane, which, though it does 



