IIELIORNITHIDAE 267 



drawn whistle, the food consists mainly of small fish and insects, 

 which the bird spears by darting o>it its head quickly. The nest, said 

 to be made of sticks, grass, and mud, with a lining of the latter, 

 is placed on low branches, and contains several eggs similar to those 

 of the Kagu, but smaller. Both parents incubate and attend to 

 the young, which have several times been reared in the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens in London.^ 



Fam. IX. Heliornithidae. — The Finfoots, comprising three 

 genera and four species, now generally coupled with the Eallidae, 

 have been placed near the Divers and 'Grebes by several authors. 

 The head is small, the neck thin, the bill Eail-like and fairly stout ; 

 the metatarsus, which is scutellated anteriorly and reticulated pos- 

 teriorly, is short, twisted outwards, and deeply grooved ; while the 

 toes have short, sharp claws, and broad scalloped webs, extending 

 in Heliomis to most of their length. The long pointed wings 

 have twenty-one remiges, of which eleven are primaries, and are 

 armed with a curved spine ; the tail consists in Podica of eighteen 

 elongated, stiff, ribbed rectrices, which are narrow and pointed, and 

 in ffeliopais and Heliomis of rather soft, short, rounded feathers. 

 The plumage is close, but not glossy as in Grebes ; there is no 

 after-shaft, the U -shaped furcula ancy loses with the sternum, the 

 tongue is lanceolate, and the nostrils are pervious. 



These birds, which frequent the swamps or rocky streams of 

 inland woods, are very shy ; their flight is heavy, and they rise 

 with difficulty from the surface of the water, aiding themselves 

 by their feet. They swim and dive well, and will remain half- 

 submerged for hours, or will sit upon a low branch over a stream, 

 dropping down and scrambling up the bank when disturbed, or 

 hiding at its base. They are said, moreover, to run swiftly on land. 

 The note of Heliomis fulica is like a dog's bark ; the food is in all 

 cases of small fish, crustaceans, insects, and seeds. The nest and eggs 

 are unknown, but in the species just mentioned the nestlings are 

 stated to be naked. This form, about thirteen inches long, which 

 ranges from Guatemala to Paraguay, is olive-brown above, the 

 black head and nape being separated by a white band down each 

 side of the neck from a blackish line which encloses the white 

 throat ; the chest is buff, the sides are brown, the remaining under- 

 parts whitish ; the bill is red, the feet are yellow, banded with 

 black. Podica senegalensis of West Africa, and the doubtfully dis- 

 1 P.Z.S. 1866, p. 76. 



