Genus — B I Z I U R A . 
Biziura Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. ZooL, Vol. XII., pt. ii., 
p. 221, 1824 . . . . . . . . . . . . Type B. Idbata. 
Also spelt — 
Bizeura Ej^on, Annals Mag. Nat. Hist., Vol. VII., p. 177, 1841. 
Hydrobates Temminck and Laugier, Plan. Color d’Ois., 
68® livr., Vol. IV., pi. 406, 1826 (not Hydrohates 
Boie, 1882) . . . . . . . . . . . . Type B. lohata. 
Also spelt — 
Hygrdbates Lichtenstein, Verz. samml. NeuhoUand, p. 6, 1837. 
Large Anatine birds with very short, deep broad bill, with a leathery lobe 
hanging from the interramal space, short wings, long stiff tail, short stout 
legs and feet. 
The bill is very short, shorter than the head, very deep and broad ; it 
is steeply conical and from the fore-head to the gape runs back sharply, the 
measurement from gape to tip exceeding that from tip to the frontal feathers 
bv less than half the chord of the culmen. The nostrils are small ovals 
V 
placed about half-way from the tip on each side of a very ill-defined culmen 
ridge ; the nail is broad, not distinctly differentiated and little overhanging. 
The lateral edges of the upper mandible are straight, furnished internally 
with comb-like lamellae. The under mandible is very broad, the rami enclosing 
a triangular unfeathered tract from which depends a nearly circular, leathery 
lobe, very much developed in the male but less so in the female which is also 
a smaller bird ; the rami are flattened and the nail obscurely marked. 
The head carries a short “ mane ” and the neck is short. 
The wing is short, the feathers narrow and pointed with the second 
primary longest, the first longer than the fourth but less than the third. 
The tail consists of twenty-four stiff narrow feathers, the upper tail-coVerts 
are short and insignificant ; the tail is about half the length of the wing. 
The legs are short and stout ; the metatarsus covered with reticulate 
scales, a little coarser in front, but not scutes ; the metatarsus is about half 
the length of the tail and longer than the culmen. 
The toes are very stout and long, fully webbed ; the outer toe is subequal 
with the middle, which is more than one-third the length of the wing or twice 
the chord of the culmen. The hind toe is short and strongly lobed. 
I have already suggested that this Duck shows such superficial features 
that anatomical investigation would force its separation from the Erismaturinoe 
into a separate subfamily. 
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