AVES—CUTWATER. 653 
and wings are of a darkish brown, pretty much inclining to black, except 
some of the exterior elges of the wing feathers, which are white. The 
3 
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. 
Birps 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. 
4 
THE SKIMMER, OR CUTWATER,! 
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; 
tne upper parts of the plumage black, with a bar of white across each wing. 
——— 
1 Rhynchops nigra, Lin. The genus Rhynchops has the bill long, straight, flattened into 
a blade, truncated at the apex; upper 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, ana 
shorter than the wings. 53* 
