GRALLATORIE. 351 
They have been divided into two tribes, according to the armature or 
non-armature of their wings; but this character is liable to exceptions. 
Jacanas*, Briss.—Parrat, Lin. 
The Jacanas are greatly distinguished from the other Grallatoria, by 
having four very long toes, separated down to their root, the nails of 
which, that of the thumb in particular, are also extremely long and pointed, 
from which peculiarity they have received their vulgar name of Surgeons. 
The bill is similar to that of the Lapwings, in its moderate length, and in 
the slight inflation of its end. Their wing is armed with a spur. They 
are noisy and quarrelsome birds, which inhabit marshes of hot climates, 
where they walk with great facility on the grass, by means of their long 
toes. 
America produces some species, in which the base of the bill is covered 
by a flat, naked membrane, which extends to part of the forehead. 
P. jacana, L., Enl. 322. (The Common Jacana). Black, with a 
red mantle; the primary wing-quills green; fleshy wattles under the 
bill; very sharp-pointed spurs. It is the most common species in 
all the hot climates of Americaf. 
Some of the same description are also found in Asia, 
P. enea||; P. superciliosa, Horsf. (the Bronzed Jacana birds), with 
a black body reflecting blue and violet tints; mantle bronze-green ; 
rump and tail blood-red; anterior quills of the wing green; a white 
streak behind the eye. Its spurs are blunt and small. 
Others have been discovered in the east, in which this membrane is de- 
ficient, and which are otherwise remarkable for some singular differences 
in the proportions of their quills. 
P. chinensis; Jacana a longue queue; Encycl. Method. Orn., pl. 
61, f. 1; Vieill. Gal. 265. (The Long-tailed Jacana), Brown; 
head, throat, front of the neck, and coverts of the wings, white; 
back of the neck furnished with silky feathers of a golden yellow; a 
small pediculated appendage to the end of some of the wing- quills; 
four quills of the tail black, and longer than the body. The Chi- 
rurgien de Lucon of Sonnerat (P. luzionensis), is the young of the 
same: independently of some difference in the colours, it has not 
yet acquired its long tail. 
* Jacana, or Jahana, is properly, in Brazil, the name of the Gallinule. The Sur- 
geons are there called Aquapuazos, because they walk over the aquatic plants called 
Aquape (Azzar.). It is possibly through an error of transcription that one of them 
in Marcgrave is named Aguapeccaca. 
+ Parra is the Latin name of some unknown bird. 
} The J. varié (P. variabilis), Enl. 846, is only the common species at an early 
age. The P. brasiliensis, and the P. nigra, exist only on the somewhat equivocal 
authority of Maregrave. The P. viridis, which also rests on the description of 
Marcgrave, appears to me, from the description itself, to be a Porphyrio. The P. 
africana, Lath., scarcely differs, As for the P. chavaria, see the following article on 
the Palamedez. 
|| Vieillot has changed this specific name into melanchioris, Gal. 264. It is also 
the P. superciliosa, Hovst. Jav. 
