HELIOBNITHID^ PODICA 273 



old reed stalks. It is raised only a few inches above the water 

 line and contains from three to seven eggs. Butler found nests in 

 September and October near Newcastle containing from five to 

 seven eggs ; Eriksson, in April, near Lake Ngami, found nests with 

 five, while Layard gives the number of eggs as five. These closely 

 resemble those of the European bird ; they are greyish-white freely 

 speckled with small spots and blotches of very dark brown ; in shape 

 they are fairly regular ovals ; they measure 2-23 to 205 x 1-50 

 to 1-45. The young birds are covered with black down and swim 

 and dive with their parents as soon as they are hatched, some- 

 times even with bits of shell clinging to them. 



Contrary to what one would expect Mr. Bryden found this Coot 

 excellent eating. 



Family II. HBLIORNITHID^. 



No aftershaft to the contour feathers ; seventeen cervical verte- 

 brae ; eighteen rectrices ; the accessory semitendinosus muscle 

 absent ; plantar flexors peculiar, both the tendons dividing into 

 three branches and distributed to three anterior digits before unit- 

 ing, while the slip to the hallux is given off by the flexor longus 

 hallucis previously ; this is the case in Heliornis ; in Podica the 

 conditions are unknown. 



This family contains three genera, from Africa, South Eastern 

 Asia and South America respectively. 



Genus I. PODICA. 



Type. 

 Podica, Less., TraiU d'Orn. p. 596 (1831) P. senegalensis. 



Bill long and somewhat slender, the culmen about equal to the 

 outer toe without the claw ; nostrils elongate ovals and pervious ; no 

 frontal shield; wings of moderate length, the first primary about 

 equal to the secondaries, the third primary the longest ; tail of 

 eighteen feathers, rectrices narrow, pointed, ribbed and stiff, much 

 graduated, the longest about three-quarters the length of the wing ; 

 feet much as in Fulica, the tarsus considerably shorter than the 

 middle toe, produced behind into a thickened marginal mem- 

 brane ; toes with lateral marginal expansions corresponding to the 

 phalanges ; claw of the middle toe pectinated along the inner edge. 



Three species of this curious genus are known ; all are confined 

 to the Ethiopian Eegion, and only one is found within our limits. 



18 VOL. IV. 



