164 AVES. 



marshes. Their polished plumage is not less adapted to this kind of life 

 than their conformation, and these birds establish an evident link between 

 the ordei' of the Grallatorise and that of the Palmipedes. There is but one 

 in Europe, 



F. atra, Gm. (The Coot.) The shield of a deep slate colour; edge of 

 the wings whitish; in the nuptial season the shield becomes red: found 

 wherever there is a pond. 



We will terminate this sketch of the Grallatoriae with three genera, 

 which it is difficult to associate with any other, and which may be 

 considered as forming separately so many small families. 



Chionis, Foster. — Vaginalis, Lath. 

 Or the Sheath-Bills. Their legs are short, almost like those of the Gallina- 

 cese; their tarsi scutellated, their bill stout and conical, having a hard sub- 

 stance enveloping its base, which, it appears, the bird has the power of 

 i-aising and depressing. 



Only one species is known, and that is from New Holland, Vag. Chionis, 

 Lath. It is the size of a Partridge, with entirely white plumage. It haunts 

 the sea-coast, where it feeds on the dead animals tlirown up by the waves. 



Glareola. 



The beak of the Pratincoles is short, conical, arcuated throughout, has a 

 large opening, and resembles that of the Gallinacese. Their excessively 

 long and pointed wings remind us of the Swallows, or of the Palmipedes of 

 the high seas; their legs are of a moderate length, their tarsi scutellated, and 

 their external toes somewhat palraated; their thumb touches the ground. 

 Aquatic worms and insects constitute their food. 

 Our last genus will be that of 



Phcenioopterus, Lin. 

 Or the Flamingos, one of the most extraordinary and insulated of all birds. 

 The legs are excessively long; the three anterior toes are palmated to their 

 ends, and that of the hind one is extremely short; the neck, quite as long 

 and slender as the legs, and the smali head furnished with a beak whose 

 lower mandible is an oval longitudinally bent into a semi-cylindrical canal, 

 while the upper one, oblong and flat, is bent crosswise in its middle, so as 

 to join the other exactly. The membranous fossae of the nostrils occupy 

 nearly all the side of the part which is behind the ti-ansverse fold, and the 

 nostrils themselves are longitudinal slits in the base of the fossae. The edges 

 of the two mandibles are furnished with small, and very delicate transverse 

 laminje, which, with the fleshy thickness of the tongue, creates some affinity 

 between these birds and the Ducks. AVere it not for the lengtlii of theirtarsi, 

 and the nudity of their legs, we might even place them among the Palmipe- 

 des. They feed on shell fish, insects, and the spawn of fishes, \yluch they 



