ORDER GRALLuE. 395 



rate, or short, and their flight feeble. They all have 

 a thumb tolerably long. 



They have been divided into two tribes, according 

 as their wings are armed or not ; but there are ex- 

 ceptions to this character. 



The Jacanas. Briss. Parra. Lin. 



Are greatly distinguished from the other grallae, by 

 feet with four very long toes, separated to their very 

 root, and the claws of which, especially that of the 

 thumb, are also very long and pointed, which has 

 gained for them, in French, the somewhat ludicrous 

 denomination of surgeons ( CJiirurgien). Their 

 bill is something like that of the lapwings, in its 

 moderate length, and slight swelling at the end, and 

 the wing is armed with a spur. They are clamorous 

 and quarrelsome birds, living in the marshes in hot 

 climates, walking easily along the deep grass, by 

 means of their long toes. 



Jacana, or Jaliana, is, in Brazil, properly, the 

 name of the water-hens. The jacanas are there 

 named aqv/ipuazos, because they walk through the 

 aquatic herbs called aquape (D'Az.). Perhaps it is 

 from the error of a transcriber, that one of them is 

 named aquapeccaca, in Marcgrave. Parra is the 

 Latin name of an unknown bird. , 



America supports some species, which have a 

 naked membrane on the base of the bill, inclining, 

 and covering a portion of the forehead. 



