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Show 402 AVES. ORDER VI. P ALMIPEDES. These birds are characterized by their feet, formed for natation, that is to say, placed far back on the body, attached to short and compressed tarsi, and with palmated toes. Their dense and polished plumage saturated with oil, and the thickly set down which is next to their skin, protect them from the water in which they live. They are the only birds whose beak surpasses-which it sometimes does to a considerable extent- the length of their feet, and this is so, to enable them to search for their food in the depths below, while they swim on the surface. Their sternum is very long, affording a complete guard to the greater part of their viscera, having, on each side, but one emargination or oval foramen, filled up with membrane. Their gizzard is usually muscular, the creca long, and the inferior larynx simple; in one family, however, the latter is so inflated as to form cartilaginous capsules. This order admits of a tolerably precise division into four families. FAMILY I. BRACHYPTERJE. A part of this family has some external affinities with that of the Gallinulre. Their legs, placed further back than in any other birds, renders walking painful to them, and obliges them, when on land, to stand vertically. In addition to this, as most of them have but feeble powers of flight, and as some of them are wholly deprived of that faculty, we may consider them as exclusively attached to the surface of the water: their plumage is extremely dense, and its surface frequently polished, pr«:senting a silvery lustre. They swim under wa· ter, using their wings with almost as much effect as though they were fins. Their gizzard is muscular, and their creca P ALMIPEDES. 403 moderate ; the lower larynx is furnished on each side with a peculiar muscle. CoLYMnus, Lin.(l) The only particular character of the Divers is a smooth, straight, compressed and pointed bill, and linear nostrils; but the differences in the feet have caused them to be subdivided. PoniOEPs, Lath.-CoLYMBus, Briss. and Illig. The toes of the Grebes, instead of being palmated, are widened like those of the Coots, the anterior ones only being united at base by membranes. The middle nail is flattened, and the tarsus strongly compressed. The semi-metallic lustre of their plumage has caused it to be occasionally employed as fur. Their tibia, as welL as that of the succeeding subgenera, is prolonged above into a point which gives a more efficient insertion to the extensors of the leg. These birds live on lakes, &c., and build among the rushes. In certain circumstances, it appears that they carry their young ones under their wings. Their size and plumage are so much changed by age, as to have caused an improper multiplication of species. M. Meyer reduces those of Europe to four. Col. cristatus, Gm., Enl. 400 and 944; Frisch, 183; Naum. 69, F. 106; Col. urinator, Gm., Enl. 941; Edw. 36 (The Crested Grebe), is the size of a duck; blackish-brown above, silver-white beneath; a white band on the wing; it acquires with age a double black tuft, and the adults have in addition a broad red collarette on the upper part of the neck, edged with black. Col. cornutus, Enl. 404, 2; Col. obscurus, Enl. 942; and Col. caspicus, Gm., Vieill. Gal. 281; Edw. 145 (The Horned Grebe), resembles the preceding in form, but the cellarette ~f the adult is black; its tufts and the front of its neck red. It IS much smaller. Col. s.ubcristatus; and the young, parotis and rubricollis, Enl • .931; Lath. Supp. I, 118; Naum. 70, f. 107 (The Grey-cheeked Grebe), also has the front of its neck red, but the tufts of the adult are small and black, and its cellarette very short and grey. Intermediate as to size, between the two last. Col. minor: Gm. Enl. 905 (The Little Grebe),. is as large ~s a Quail, and has neither crest nor collarette; Its plumage IS brown more or less shaded with red, the breast and beJiy excepted: where it is a silver-grey. The throat of the young bird is white.(2) (1) Colymbus, the Greek name of these birds. • (2 ) Add the Pod. carolinemis, Lath., Cates b · 41' 91 • Enl· 93;-the Gr. aux |
