A VES- CUT WATER. 653 



and wings are of a darkish brown, pretty much inclining to black, except 

 some of the exterior edges of the wing feathers, which are white. The 



breast and belly are of a light ash color ; it has no tail ; the legs and toes are 

 broad and flat. It has an unpleasant cry, and will occasionally, when 

 angered or pleased, raise or fall the feathers of its crest. 



ORDER XV.— PALMIPEDES. 



Birds of this order have the bill of various forms ; legs short, placed more 

 or less backwards ; the anterior toes partially or wholly connected by webs, 

 and in some families all the four toes united by one membrane ; the hinder 

 toe interiorly articulated to the tarsus, or, in some genera, wanting. 



THE SKIMMER, OR CUTWATER.i 



Is twenty inches in length, and in breadth three feet seven inches. The 

 bill is of a very singular structure, the upper chap, or mandible, being above 

 an inch shorter than the under, and the upper shuts into it, as a razor into 

 its handle. The base of the bill is red, the rest black ; and on the sides are 

 several furrows. The forehead, chin, and all the under parts, are white; 

 the upper parts of the plumage black, with a bar of white across each wing. 



1 Rhijnchops nigra, Lin. The genus Rhyrichops has the bill Ions, straight, flattened into 

 a blade, truncated at the apex; ujjper mandible much shorter than the under; nostrils 

 lateral, marginal, remote from the base ; legs slender ; tarsus larger than the middle toe ; 

 the fore toes united by a membrane; hind toe joined on the tarsus; tail forked, and 

 shorter than the wings. 53* 



