Genits— PISCATRIX. 
PiscATRix Reich enbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. vi., 1852 . . Type P. sula. 
Large Suline birds, comparatively small for this family, with long straight 
bills not hooked but bent at the tip, long thick neck, long wings, short legs 
and long toes, all the toes, including the hind toe, being connected with 
a web. 
The bill is longer than the head, rather broad at the base, laterally 
compressed anteriorly ; culmen ridge flattened and separated from laterals 
by a linear groove extending the whole length of the bill and showing no 
nostrils. 
The edges of the mandibles coarsely serrated, the serrations obsolete 
towards the base, the rami of lower mandible strong and deep enclosing 
a very narrow unfeathered pouch, the featherless tract extending round the 
base of the mandibles and round the eyes, the chin being naked. 
The culmen is less than half the length of the tail and more than twice 
the length of the metatarsus. 
The wing is long, but not twice the length of the tail ; the first primary 
is longest. 
The tail is very long and wedge-shaped ; it is composed of fourteen or 
sixteen feathers : probably the latter is the full number, the former due to 
age or moult. It is more than twice the length of the culmen and more than 
half the length of the wing. 
The legs are short and stout ; the metatarsus is coarsely reticulate 
throughout, the scales smaller on the back ; in length the metatarsus i^ less 
than half the culmen. The toes are long, the outer one slightly exceeding 
the middle one, which has the claw pectinated: the outer toe is about one 
and a haK times the length of the metatarsus ; all the toes are fully webbed, 
the hind toe connected to the inner with a web. The toes are reticulate ; 
this is peculiar, as generally in birds even having different metatarsal covering 
the toes bear regular scutes, apparently for ease in bending. This would 
seem to be the oldest toe-covering, but examination of the downy young of 
this genus shows the toe- covering to be more or less reticulate at that stage, 
the anterior joints showing irregular scutes broken up, the posterior joints 
regular reticulation. The downy young also shows no pectination on the 
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