Genus— P 0 D A R G U S . 
PoDARGUS Vieillot, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., Vol. XXVII., 
p. 151, 1818 . . . . . . . . . . . , Type P. strigoides. 
Large Podargine birds with large broad bills, long wings, long wedge tails, 
and short legs and feet. 
The biU is very broad at base and triangular in shape, the gape very large 
and the whole bill very depressed, the culmen keeled with a very prominent 
ridge, the sides flattened. The upper mandible has a prominent hooked tip, 
the edges straight and clean cut, not denticulate; the under mandible having 
the rami narrow and the sides straight, the tip decurved and hollowed to fit 
the hooked tip of the upper mandible ; the interramal space fully feathered, 
bristles along the edges pointing outward ; similar bristles occur along the sides 
of the gape and cover the nostrils, projecting forwards into a tuft as far as the 
end of the bill. The nostrils are completely hidden by bristles, and are hollow 
slits situated near the base of the bill and overhung by a membranous 
operculum. The wings are long and rounded, the fifth primary being longest, 
the fourth about equal to the sixth and much longer than the seventh, which 
exceeds the third, the first being little more than half the length of the fifth. 
The tail is wedge shaped, almost as long as the wing, the two middle 
feathers attenuately pointed, the others less pointed. 
The feet are small, the tarsus less than the middle toe in length. Three 
broad scutes can be counted in front, the back being very finely reticulated. 
The middle toe is long ; the outer longer than the inner, which is longer than 
the hind-toe. The claws are long and sharp, midtoe not pectinated. 
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