THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Family PhcBthonidcB are large to small (for this Order) birds, with long 
stout slightly curved but pointed bills with open nostrils, long wings, long 
tail with middle feathers immensely elongated, generally one and a half 
times to twice the length of the wing, short tarsus and toes. The toes are all 
connected with webs, but the form is normal, the middle-toe being longest and 
the hind one short and placed posteriorly. 
The extreme elongation of the tail feathers easily distinguishes this group, 
while the birds are apparently bulky and the wings comparatively short. Yet 
they are capable of the most extended flight, being seen further away from land 
than any other bird, including the preceding much vaunted “King of the Air.” 
The Family PelecanidcB are very large birds with immensely long depressed 
broad hooked bills, with huge gular pouch, long wings, short tail evenly 
rounded, and long (for this Order) legs and feet. The huge pouched bill 
characterise this family which consists of very large stoutly-built birds with 
legs stout and large. The bill is more than half the length of the wing and 
twice the length of the tail. 
The preceding sketch shows the diverse elements herewith associated, 
as nothing could be much more unlike than the large airy Fregata and the 
very large solid Pelecanus, while the bills of Fregata and PJioethon show as 
much divergence. 
It might be observed that in manners these groups show just as much 
diversity, Pelecanus being a dweller on the ground, Anhinga being a river 
swimmer constantly in the water ; Phcethon and Fregata are only at home 
in the air, being quite helpless on the ground as the extreme shortness of the 
legs and length of their wings testify, while species of Phalacrocorax and 8ula 
are only on land for the breeding-season and otherwise live on the sea, though 
they are splendid flyers. All the Order are practically solely fish-eaters. 
Ogilvie-Grant’s Family Phalacrocoracidoe is subdivided into two sub- 
families, PJialacrocoracince and Plotince, covering two genera only. I consider 
these as families and would divide the former into several genera though 
the latter covers one genus only. The genera in the Family Phalacrocoracidce 
are well marked and easily diagnosed. Genera were proposed by 
Reich enbach in 1852 and utilised by Bonaparte in 1855. Careful workers 
such as Salvador!, in the brflliant Orn. Papuasia, made use of them, though 
at that time he did not recognise the genera in the Anseriforfnes that he 
later approved of when monographing the group. 
The publication of the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum 
produced, as usual when the worker was retrogressive, a retrograde action, 
and this is noted in the American Ornithologists’ Union Cheek-List, 3rd 
edition, 1910. Only one genus appears though three subgenera are admitted. 
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