A foot of the Dodo is preserved in the British Museum, and a head in the Ashmolean col lection at Oxford. The beak resembles that of the Penguin or Albatross rather than that of a Vulture, to which it has been compared. The foot would resemble that of the Apteno dytes, if it were webbed, which however it is not nor has been. It is very similar to, but proportionally stronger than, the foot of the Curassow. We have examined carefully the foot in the British Museum, and also the head of the Dodo at the Ashmolean Museum, and derived a conviction that they are the remains of a bird sui generis.
A third form of beak among the Brevipennes or Cursores is presented by the Apteryx Aus tralis; a bird inhabiting and apparently pecu liar to the island of New Zealand. The man dibles are elongated and slender, the upper one is marked on either side by a longitudinal furrow. The toes are, as in the Dodo, four in number; but the fourth, or posterior one, is smaller, being reduced almost to a spur, and the three anterior ones have the lateral skin, notched as in the Phuleropes. The wings are shorter than in any other known bird, are quite concealed by the feathers, and terminate in a sharp spine or claw. The feathers are narrow like those of the Cassowary.
Ordo VI. GRALLATOR,ES.
Legs with the tibia, and especially the me tatarsus very long, stretched out behind in flight; the distal end of the tibia unfeathered; toes elongated, straight. Wings long. Body slender; neck and beak long.
The Waders,—or Gralke, as they were termed by Linnaeus from being raised on their long legs, as on stilts,—frequent for the most part the banks of lakes and rivers, marshes, and the shores of estuaries, and derive their food, some exclusively from the waters, feeding on small fishes, aquatic mollusks, worms, small reptiles, and insects, as well as their spawn, while others are of more terrestrial habits and food. Of the latter kind are the Gruidie, or Stork tribe, which are chiefly vegetable feeders, and resemble the land birds in their bill and feet; the former being more obtuse than in the typical waders, and the latter shorter. Then follow the Ardeidee, or Heron tribe; the Scolo pacidie, Snipe, Woodcock ; the Rallida', Rail, Coot; and the Charadriadie, Plover, Sander ling, &c.
The Waders are remarkable for their power of preserving a motionless position upon one leg for a considerable length of time ; the mechanism by which this is effected will be afterwards described. During flight they stretch out their long legs behind to counter balance their long neck, and the tail is always extremely short, its function as a rudder being transferred to the legs. They mostly make or
choose their nests on the ground, and the young are enabled to run about as soon as hatched, excepting in those Waders which live in pairs.
Ordo VII. NATATORES.
Body closely covered with feathers, and coated with a thick down next the skin. Legs short, placed behind the point of equilibrium. Toes united by a membrane or web, which is sometimes divided.
The Swimmers, or Palmipedes, are of all the orders of birds the most easily recogniza ble by the structure and position of their oar like feet : this peculi arity which occasionsan awkward gait on land, is extremely favourable to those birds whose business is in the great waters.' Their body is boat-shaped, and ge nerally elongated, as is also their neck. Their dense plumage is oiled and lubricated by the secretion. of the coccy geal glands, which are remarkably developed for that purpose. In general the males have many females, and in harmony with this spe ciality the young are hatched in a condition which renders the cooperation of both parents for their support unnecessary, being able to take to the water and swim about in search of food the instant that they are liberated from the egg-coverings. The families of Swimmers are the Anatidee, Swan, Goose, Duck ; Co lymbider, Divers ; Alcad(e, Auks ; Pelecanidee, Pelican, Cormorant, Gannet ; Laridee, Gulls.
1. Osteology.—The skeleton of Birds is re markable for the rapidity of its development and the light and elegant mechanism displayed in the adaptation of its several parts. The osseous substance is compact, and exhibits, more of the laminated and less of the fibrous texture than in the other vertebrate classes. This is more especially the case in those parts of the skeleton which are permeated by the air. The bones which present this singular modifi cation have a greater proportion of the phosphate of lime in their composition than is found in the osseous system of the mammalia, and they are whiter than the bones of any other animal. In the bones where the medulla is not dis placed or dessicated by the extension of the air-cells into their interior, the colour is of a duller white. In the Silk or Negro-fowl of the Cape de Verd Islands ( Gallus Morio, Temminck) the periosteal covering of the bones is of a dark brown, and in some parts almost black colour ; but this ought to be re garded as a peculiarity of the cellular rather than of the osseous texture, which does not differ in colour from that of other birds ; indeed the thin aponeurosis covering the lateral tendons of the gizzard of the Silk-fowl is observed to have the same dark hue as the membrane which invests the bones.