CHAPTER XIII. 
The Cormorant Group,— Order Steganopodes. 
The two ordinal groups of birds forming the subject of this and the next chapter 
agree with those considered in the two previous chapters in having bridged, or 
desmognathous palates, and likewise in the want of a projecting external process 
at the lower end of the humerus. The first order, which includes not only 
cormorants, but also darters, gannets, pelicans, and frigate and tropic-birds, may be 
known as the cormorant-like, or steganopodous group, and is at once distinguished 
from all others by the whole four toes being connected together by a web, which 
generally extends to their extremities; while the angle 
of the lower jaw is not produced behind its point 
of attachment to the skull. These birds are further 
characterised by the shortness of their legs, — this 
shortness being most marked in the frigate-birds,— 
and also by the plumage of the neck being without 
gaps, and continuous. Their skulls lack the deep 
grooves for glands on the frontal region characterising 
many other aquatic birds; and its rostrum has no 
basipterygoid processes for the articulation of the 
pterygoid bones. There is a tufted oil-gland, and the 
young are helpless, and pass through a downy stage. 
As a rule, their bodies are elongated, the neck of medium length, and the head 
small; while the beak may be either long or short. The wings may be long and 
rounded, or exceedingly elongated and pointed; and although the tail is variable 
in form, it is always very different from that of other swimming birds. Although 
several members of the group frequent the coast, it is only the representatives 
of two families that are purely pelagic in their habits; while many species inhabit 
rivers or lakes far removed from the sea. All are carnivorous, subsisting almost 
entirely on fish; but their breeding-habits vary considerably, although both parents 
take their share in incubation. The eggs, which may be either one, or from two 
to four in number, are of relatively small size, much elongated, and generally 
invested with a chalky coating over the uniformly coloured shell. Occasionally, 
however, they are smooth-shelled, with dark markings upon a light ground. 
While some fish by diving into the water from a height, others capture their prey 
by thrusting their necks down into the water as they swim, while yet others 
follow the fish of which they are in pursuit beneath the water. Some diversity 
of view obtains among ornithologists as to the number of family groups into which 
these birds should be divided. 
RIGHT FOOT OF PELICAN. 
