214 AVES: PYGOPODES. — XXXI. 



ii. Bill not both strongly hooked and cered. 

 k. Hind toe short, decidedly elevated; toes semipalmat«; no soft membrane 



about nostrils; schizognathous Gallinjb, XXXIX. 



M. Hind toe little if at all above level of the rest (rarely absent). 



I. Nostrils opening beneath a soft swollen cere-like membrane; hind 



claw short; doves Columb.^, XL. 



II. Nostrils not opening beneath a swollen membrane or cere. 



m. Hind claw not longer than the others; mostly desmognathous. 



(Picarite.) 



n. Wings not very long; gape not very wide nor deeply cleft. Feet 



zygodactyle or syndactyle. (Toes 2 in front, or if 3, then the 



outer and middle toes connected for at least half their length 



in our species.) 



0. Tail feathers soft; bill not chisel-like. . . Coccyges, XLUI. 



00. Tail feathers stifE and pointed; bill adapted for striking or 



boring Pici, XLIV. 



nn. Wings very long, with 10 primaries (tail of 10 feathers and bill 

 fissirostral, or else secondaries 6 and bill tenuirostral); toes 3 

 in front, 1 behind, the hinder a little elevated. 



Maceochires, XLT. 

 mm. Hind claw at least as long as middle claw; toes always 3 in front, 

 1 behind, cleft to the base or with the basal joints only immov- 

 ably coherent ; palate segithognathous. . . Passekes, XL VI. 



Order XXXI. PYGOPODES. (The Diving Birds.) 



Feet palmate or lobate ; tibia feathered, included in the skin 

 nearly to the heel-joint, hence the legs set far back, so that the birds 

 are scarcely able to walk at all on land ; hind toe small and ele- 

 vated, or wanting ; nostrils developed ; bill horny, not lamellate or 

 serrate ; no gular pouch ; palate schizognathous ; wings very short ; 

 tail very short or rudimentary. 



This is apparently not a natural order. Stejneger (following 

 Huxley) unites the Pygopodes, Longipennes and Tubinares in one 

 order, CecomorphcB. He remarks : " The fact is that not only 

 are the gulls very nearly related to the auks, but their affinities 

 ■with the Grallce through the plovers are unmistakable. On the 

 other hand, the grebes seem to be only distantly related to the other 

 ' Pygopodes ' and the puffins and albatrosses similarly so to the 

 Longipennes or gulls." The Pygopodes are water birds, expert 

 divers, feeding chiefly on fishes, (jniy^, rump; n-our, foot.) 



Families of Pygopodes. 



a. Tail feathers wanting; anterior toes lobed, the claws very broad, flat, 

 rounded at tip, resembling human nails. .... Podicipid.b, 124. 

 aa. Tail feathers developed, but short. 



i. Toes 4; the hind toe present Gaviid.e, 125. 



Hi. Toes 3, the hind toe wanting Algid.*:, 126. 



