10 FINFOOT. 



GENUS XCII— FINFOOT. 



1 African Finfoot || 2 American Finfoot 



JjILL moderately curved, pointed, and elongated. 



Nostrils linear. 



Body depressed. 



Tail somewhat cuneiform. 



Legs short. Toes four in number, three placed before, and one 

 behind ; and furnished with an indented, or scolloped membrane ; 

 claws sharp, and bent. 



1.— AFRICAN FINFOOT— Pl. clxiv. 



SIZE of a Coot; length eighteen inches. Bill one inch and 

 three quarters in length, brown, formed like that of a Diver, some- 

 what bent, especially towards the point ; the under mandible pale ; 

 nostrils in a depression, half the length of the bill, being a pervious 

 slit on the fore part; tongue three-fourths of the length of the bill; 

 plumage in general above brown, with several spots of the size of 

 peas, on the lower part of the neck, and beginning of the back, but 

 more numerous on the former; these are buff-coloured, and margined 

 with black ; over the eye sparingly beset with feathers, or rather 

 down ; from behind the eye a slender streak of white, passing down 

 on each side of the neck; chin and throat white; the rest of the 

 under parts dirty rufous white, inclining most to white on the breast; 

 vent pale rufous brown ; side feathers under the wings, marked with 

 two or more obsolete spots on each side of the shaft; under wing 

 coverts brown, spotted with white ; tail cuneiform, stout, nearly six 

 inches long, the outer feathers about three ; the whole of a dark 

 colour, with tawny yellow, stiff webs ; thighs bare a little way above 

 the joint; legs strong, four inches in length from the joint to the 

 foot, the toes all disunited, but furnished on each side with a triple, 



