﻿156 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 



more instances of the disappearance of the hind toe than 

 elsewhere : in this order, also, we have some very remark- 

 able forms, by which the passage from the simply webbed 

 shape to the swimming foot is gradually and distinctly 

 marked. The typical structure is found in the sand- 

 pipers ( Tringa), tatlers ( Totanus), and snipes (Scolopaoc}. 

 In these the three anterior toes are very long, slender, 

 and deeply cleft to their base, and the lateral ones not 

 much shorter than the middle ; the hinder toe is much 

 shorter, proportionably, than in the Rasores, and is placed 

 rather higher up the leg. The hallux, in fact, in all the 

 above genera, and in most of the others, is obviously 

 rudimentary, and therefore can in no wise be depended 

 upon even as a distinction for a genus, notwithstanding 

 the undue stress that has been laid upon it in two or 

 three instances in the Regne Animal, But, as we quit 

 the typical waders and approach the swimmers, we 

 meet with feet totally different ; the most remarkable of 

 these forms characterise the Phaleropes, the coots, the 

 jacanas, and the rails : the two first are 

 swimmers, the latter walkers. There 

 may be observed in some of the tatlers a 

 projecting margin or rim on each side of 

 the anterior toes, which appears to indicate 

 in birds so formed, some little power 

 of swimming : now this margin appears 

 the first, or incipient development of the 

 lobed foot of the Phalerope hyperboreus 

 (fig. 8 5.) ; the margin gradually enlarges in 

 Ph. Wilsoni*, and the toes are connected 

 at their base by a short web ; a structure, as Dr. Rich- 

 ardson well observes, which seems to fit it more for 

 walking on the surface of marshes filled with aqua- 

 tic moss (Sphagnce), than for exercising the full powers 

 of swimming possessed by Ph. hyperboreus, and Fuli- 

 carius. In these two species the membrane on each 

 side the toes is not only enlarged, but divided into dis- 

 tinct lobes, or deeply scalloped membranes ; the webs 

 * Northern Zoology, vol. ii. p. 405. pi. 69. ; 



