192 GRALLATORES. FULICA. 
Genus FULICA, Linn. COOT. 
GENERIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill shorter than the head, strong, strait, subconic, com- 
pressed, much higher than broad. Upper mandible slightly 
arched ; the culmen dilated into a broad shield-like plate up- 
on the forehead ; mandibular furrow broad, and occupying 
two-thirds of its length. Mandibles of equal length; the 
angle of the lower one ascending. 
Nostrils concave, pierced in the membrane of the mandi- 
bular furrow near the middle of the bill, pervious, linear, 
oblong. 
Wings tuberculated ; with the second and third quill fea- 
thers the longest. ‘Tail short. Body laterally compressed. 
Legs of mean length and strength; naked for a short 
space above the tarsal jomt. Feet four-toed, three before 
and one behind ; toes long, united at their base, and loba- 
ted; the middle toe with three, the inner one with two, and 
the outer with four, distinct rounded membranes. Middle 
toe longer than the tarsus. Front of tarsus, upper part of 
the toes, and the membranes scutellated. Hind toe as long 
as the first joint of the middle one, and resting for half its 
length upon the ground. Claws falcate, acute. Plumage 
thick, soft, and open in texture. 
In the present arrangement the Coots are placed in that 
station to which their real affinities (as indicated by their 
anatomy and habits), so plainly point, viz. at the extremity 
of the Rallide, and leading the way, by their lobated feet 
and aquatic character, to the true swimming birds, in the 
succeeding order of Natatores. From the Gallinules they 
are chiefly separated by the greater development of the 
membrane bordering the toes, which, instead of being nar- 
row and entire as in that genus, becomes large and rounded 
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