516 FLORIDA GALLINULE. 
with the rails, in which the front is feathered, is in my opinion 
of considerable importance: the lower mandible is navicular : 
the tongue is moderate, compressed, entire. The legs have 
been described among the characters of the family, the ante- 
rior toes being in all extremely long, flattened beneath, and 
bordered by a narrow membrane, which circumstance alone 
distinguishes the gallinules from the coots, that have a broad 
membrane cut into festoons. The hind toe bears on the 
ground with several joints: the nails are compressed, subarched, 
and rather acute. The wings are convex rounded ; the first 
primary is shorter than the fifth, the second and third being 
longest. The tail is so short as hardly to appear from under 
the coverts. The females scarcely differ from the males, but 
the young are different from the adults. They moult annually. 
The family Macrodactyli, or Rallidc, when restricted to the 
five genera of which we compose it (one being Fulica, which 
nothing but blind caprice could separate from them), is sur- 
prisingly natural. ‘The bill is short or of moderate length in 
the long-billed rails, hard, thick at the base, straight, com- 
pressed, entire, curved at the point, and sharp on the edges. 
The head is small, the neck well proportioned, the body 
slender and much compressed. The feet are moderate, rather 
robust, and without exception four-toed: the naked space on 
the tibia is rather limited ; the tarsus not longer, generally 
shorter, than the middle toe, and scwtellated: the toes are 
three before and one behind, remarkably long (the most 
obvious trait of the family), slender, quite divided, and edged 
with a decurrent membrane: the hind toe is rather long, 
articulated almost on a level with the others, resting on 
the ground a good part of its length: the nails are slender, 
compressed, and acute. The wings rather short, wide, some- 
what rounded, concave, and tuberculated ; the first primary is 
not much shorter than the second, the third or fourth being 
the longest. ‘The tail is short, and of twelve feathers. 
The female is smaller, but otherwise differs little from the 
other sex: the young often differ from the adults: even those 
