G28 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Gralla. 

 tores. 



der ; and the frontal disk, sometimes rounded, sometimes 

 square above, is of considerable size. The species are 

 'remarkable for richness of colouring. P. hyacinthinus, 

 Temm. (Fulica porphyrio, Linn.), is an African species, 

 not unfrequent in Sicily and Sardinia. 



The genus Fulica, as now restricted, is chiefly distin- 

 guished from its congeners by a scallop-shaped or broadly- 

 festooned membrane on each side of the toes. It con- 

 tains the coots, of which F. atra, Linn., our common coot, 

 affords a good example. This bird, as generally distri- 

 buted in Britain throughout the summer season as the 

 water-hen, leaves the northern portions of the island on 

 the approach of winter. It dislikes being approached in 

 open water, though a good diver, and quickly betakes it- 

 self to some protecting cover of reeds or other water-plants 

 on every slight alarm. The cinereous coot of the western 

 world (F. Americana, Gmel.) is a distinct species, though 

 not so regarded by Alexander Wilson. It is widely spread 

 over a vast extent of territory, from the steaming marshes 

 of Jamaica to the cool and grassy lakes which skirt the 

 plains of the Saskatchewan. 



Baron Cuvier terminates his systematic exposition of 

 the grallatorial order by three genera of a somewhat ano- 

 malous nature, which certainly do not amalgamate either 

 with their neighbours or each other. 



The genus Chionis of Forster has the bill short, strong, 

 compressed, the nostrils tubular, and protected by hard, 

 elevated, and compressed folds, which envelope the base. 

 (Plate CCCC. fig. 8.) The front of the head and part of the 

 face are naked, the wings long, the feet short. There is 

 only a single species known. It is called the sheath-bill, 

 Ch. Forsteri, or necrophaga, or vaginalis, and is of snowy 

 whiteness, and of the size of a pigeon. A great diversity 

 of opinion exists regarding its position ; some writers re- 

 moving it into the ensuing order, while Mr Swainson places 

 it among the Columbidae. It inhabits New Zealand, Ker- 

 guelen's Land, Staten Land, and other countries of the 

 southern hemisphere, where it is said to frequent the sea- 

 shore in flocks, feeding on mollusca and carrion, which lat- 

 ter renders its flesh offensive to the taste. It was dis- 

 covered during Cook's circumnavigation. 



The genus Glareola, Gmel., contains the pratincoles, 

 or sea-partridges as they are sometimes called. The bill 

 is short, compressed, somewhat arched throughout, and 

 rather deeply cleft. The wings are of great length, and 

 very sharp pointed, somewhat resembling those of swal- 

 lows. The legs are of medium length, and there is a 

 slight palmation between the outer and middle toes. The 

 tail is usually forked. These birds fly in numerous noisy 

 flocks, and feed on insects, " particulierement des mouches 

 et autres insectes ailes qui vivent parmi les joncs et les 

 roseaux ; il se lance" (M. Temminck alludes particularly 

 to the European species) " sur ces insectes avec une rapi- 

 dite etonnante, et les saisit au vol ou a la course." 1 The 

 pratincoles inhabit the temperate and warmer regions of 

 the old world, and are unknown in America. The col- 

 lared or Austrian species (G. torquata, Meyer) is com- 

 mon in the south-eastern countries of Europe, and has 

 been killed occasionally in Britain. 2 G. lactea, Temm., 

 inhabits Bengal ; 3 G. grallaria of the same author is na- 

 tive to New Holland. 



Lastly, the genus Phcenicopterus, Linn., contains 



those extraordinary birds called flamingoes. The bill is 

 higher than wide, dentated, conical towards the point, the v 

 upper mandible suddenly bent from its centre downwards 

 upon the under one, which is the broadest. The neck and 

 legs are of extraordinary length, and the anterior toes are 

 united by a broad palmation. Mr Swainson regards this 

 genus as the grallatorial type of the Anatidce, and he con- 

 sequently places it in the natatorial order, which we are 

 just about to enter. The only species known in Europe is 

 Ph. rvher, Linn., a bird well known in Sicily and Calabria, 

 and very abundant in Sardinia, especially among the la- 

 gunes and marshes in the neighbourhood of Cagliari. 

 Large flocks occur almost every year along the southern 

 coasts of France, and a few sometimes stray as far north- 

 wards as the banks of the Rhine. It is common in many 

 countries of Africa and Asia ; but the American species, 

 regarded as synonymous by Wilson, is a distinct kind, men- 

 tioned long ago as such by Molina. (See Plate CCCC. fig. 

 9.) It is the Ph. Americanus of Mr Nuttall, and the bird 

 alluded to by Thomas Campbell in his Gertrude of Wyo- 

 ming : — 



Then, where of Indian hills the daylight takes 

 His leave, how might you the flamingo see 

 Disporting like a meteor on the lakes. 



Another western kind occurs in South America {Ph. 

 ignipalliatus, Isid. Geoff.), 4 while a fourth (Ph. minor) 

 is native to the Cape and Senegal. 5 These birds in ge- 

 neral inhabit solitary sea-coasts in most of the warmer 

 regions of the earth, where they associate in flocks, and 

 migrate in bodies formed into an angular phalanx, like 

 wild geese. They feed upon mollusca, insects, and spawn, 

 which they fish up by means of their lengthened necks, 

 sometimes turning their bill upside down, to take advan- 

 tage of its peculiar, and apparently inconvenient form. 

 They are said to be extremely shy and watchful (although 

 Dampier and his two companions succeeded in killing 

 fourteen at once 6 ), and place sentinels, which on the ap- 

 proach of threatened danger, give alarm by a loud and 

 trumpet-like cry. They also breed together in inundated 

 marshes, raising their nests to a considerable height, by 

 collecting the mud into a pyramidal hillock with their 

 toes, after which they brood and hatch their eggs in what 

 may be called a standing posture, their feet and legs be- 

 ing often in the water. The young are only two or three 

 in number, and run almost as soon as excluded from the 

 shell. They sleep standing upon one leg, with the neck 

 folded back upon the body, and the head reclined beneath 

 the wing. They run swiftly, but never swim from choice. 7 

 The tongue of the European flamingo was much admired 

 by ancient epicures ; and Apicius, that " deepest abyss 

 of wastefulness," as Pliny calls him, is supposed to have 

 been the first to discover its exquisite flavour. 8 



Order VI.— PALMIPEDES, or WEB-FOOTED 

 BIRDS. 9 



The birds of this order are especially characterized by their 

 peculiar adaptation for swimming, their feet being gene- 

 rally short and placed far behind, their tarsi short and com- 

 pressed, and their anterior toes connected by membranes, 



1 Manuel, ii. p. 502. « Temminck, PI. Col. 419. 



2 Bullock, in Linn. Trans, xi. 177- 6 Voyage, i. 70. 



3 See Planches Col. 399 ; — also Leach in Linn. Trans, xiii. pi. 12. 7 Nut tail's Manual, ii. 70. 

 * Annal. des Sciences Nat. xvii. 454. 



8 On concluding this portion of our present treatise, domestic circumstances, with which it does not concern the reader to be- 

 come acquainted, but which the author could not control, rendered impossible the continuance of his own labour. The sketch of 

 the ensuing (natatorial) order was therefore kindly undertaken by Mr Macgillivray, whose well-known acquirements in Ornitho- 

 logy will render the substitution advantageous to the public 9 Natatobes, llliger. , 



