50 RED-LOBEV COOT. 



GRALLATOUES. 



Family RALLID^. f Boncqjurte.j 



Genus Fulica. (Linnmus.J 



Generic Characters. — Beak middle-sized, strong, straight, conic, compressed 

 at its base, broader than thick; upper mandible dilated into a frontal plate 

 at its base; point of beak laterally compressed; upper mandible slightly 

 longer than the lower; nostrils lateral, in the middle of the beak, pierced 

 longitudinally, half closed by a membrane which conceals the widest part. 

 Legs long, moderately robust, naked above the knee; three toes in front 

 and one behind; all the toes long, and bordered on each side by crescentic 

 membranous festoons; claws long and very sharp-pointed. Wings medium 

 size; the first primary shorter than the second and third, which are the 

 longest in the wing. 



RED-LOBED COOT. 



Fulica cristata. 



Fulica cristata, Gimelin. 



Foidqiie a crete, Of the French. 



Kamm-Blesshuhn, ■ Of the Germans. 



Crested Coot, Bree; first edition. 



Red-lol)ed Coot, Irby. 



Specific Characters. — The frontal plate shaped into two red lobes or knobs, 

 below white, and divided into two stripes at the base of the beak. Length 

 fifteen to sixteen inches; carpus to tip eight inches; tarsus two inches 

 and a half; middle toe three inches and a half; claw of middle toe four 

 fifths of an inch; hind toe one inch; beak one inch and a half; depth of 

 beak at base half an inch. 



In the birds of which I am now treating there is a close generic 

 resemblance, which has produced different results in the systematic 



