origin.---Tail, fhort, about the fize of a common pullet fix months

old.

ORDER II. WITH PINNATED FEET.

This order contains only the Phalarope, the Coot and the Glebe. The PHALAROPE. This bird is claffed by Linnæus in the tringa genus; but Briffon forms a new genus, under the pame of Phala ropus, from the scallops on its toes. There are three fpecies of it found in America.---Characters---Bill, straight and slender.---Noftrils, minute. Body and Legs in every refpect like the fandpiper.---Toes, furnished with fcalloped membranes.

The Coor. This bird is found in America as well as in Europe; it frequents ponds and lakes, and may be confidered as the beginning of the extenfive tribe of true aquatic birds, as it is almost constantly on the water.---Its Bill is fhort, ftrong, thick at the bafe, floping to the end, the base of the upper mandible rifing far up the forehead, both mandibles of equal length.---Noftrils, inclining to oval, narrow and fhort.---Body, compreffed.---Wings, fhort.---Tail, short.--Foes, long, furnished with broad fcalloped membranes. The coot is claffed by Linnæus in the fulica of the preceding order, but the fcalloped membranes of its feet certainly removes it from that genus, however it may agree in other refpects.

The GLEBE. The Bill of this bird is ftrong, flender and sharp pointed.---Noftrils, linear.---Tongue, flightly cloven at the end... Body, depreffed.---Feathers, thick-fet, compact, very smooth and glofly.---No tail.---Wings, hort.---Legs, placed very far behind, very thin, or much compreffed, doubly ferrated behind.---Tees, furnished on each fide with a broad plain membrane. Linnæus has claffed thefe birds with the web-footed, by the name of Colym bri; but Briffon has feparated them, and from the make of their feet, they could not with propricty be claffed with them. The Glebes are divided into two claffes, the greater and the chefnut or caftageneux, of each of which there are three fpecies on the new continent.

This genus contains the Avofets, of which there are but two fpecies, one of which is found in America. The legs of the avofet, like the flamingo, contrary to most of the web-footed birds, are very long it has likewife another fingular character, viz. the invertion of its bill, which is bent into the arc of a circle; the subftance

of

AVOSET

of the bill is foft and almost membranous at its tip.-Head, neck, and upper part of the body, of a pale buff colour; the reft of the lower part of the body, white.-Back and primaries black; leffer coverts white, greater black; beneath which is a long tranfverfe bar of white.-Legs, dufky colour.-Feet, femipalmated, the webs bordering on the fides of the toes for a confiderable way. It is a native of North-America, and Mr. Pennant imagines they are fometimes found entirely white.

GEN. 2.

PHOENICOPTERUS.

This genus includes but one fpecies, the Flammant or Flamingo: -Bill, thick, large, bending in the middle, forming a fharp angle, the higher part of the upper part carinated, the lower compressed; the edges of the upper mandible fharply denticulated, of the lower tranfverfely fulcated.-Noftrils, covered above with a thin plate, pervious, linearly longitudinal.—Tongue, cartilaginous and pointed at the end; the middle mufcular, bafe glandular, on the upper part aculated-Neck, very long.-Head, large.-Legs and thighs of a great length.-Feet, webbed, the webs extending as far as the claws, but are deeply femilunated.-Back toe, very small. When this bird has attained its full growth, it is not heavier than a wild duck, and is yet five feet high.*.

GEN. 3.

DIOMEDA.

Characters-Bill, ftrong, bending in the middle, and hooked at the end of the upper mandible; that of the lower mandible abrupt, and the lower part inclining downwards.-Noftrils, opening forward, and covered with a large convex guard.-No back toe. The birds in this genus are the Albatroffes. These birds, which in the bulk of their bodies are fuperior to all the known fpecies of water-fowl, inhabit the fhores, iflands and feas within the tropics, along the coaft of Chili, and the extremities of America, but it never has been Teen in the feas of the northern hemisphere.

1

GEN. 4. ALCA.

The Auks form this genus, of which there are four species found about the new continent. Characters-Bill, thick, ftrong, convex, and compreffed.-Noftrils, linear, placed near the edge of the mandible.-Tongue, almost as long as the bill.-No back toe.---Black on the back and white beneath.

**Catesby,

CEN.

GEN. 5. COLYMBUS.

The web-footed birds in this genus, that can be confidered as be longing to America, are only one fpecies of the Guillemot and two of the Diver. The characters of the former are---Bill, flender, strong and pointed, upper mandible flightly bending towards the end; bafe covered with short soft feathers.-Noftrils, lodged in a hollow near the base.-Tongue, flender, almoft the length of the bill.-No back toe.---Calour, in general, black on the back, and white on the breast. Its weight is about twenty ounces.

The bill of the diver is ftrong and pointed, upper mandible the longeft, edges of each bending inwards.---Noftrils, linear, upper part divided by a finall cutaneous appendage.---Tongue, long and pointed, ferrated at each fide near the bafe.---Legs, very thin and flat.---Tous, the exterior the longest, back toe small, joined to the interior by a fmall membrane.---Tail, fhort. This bird is about the fize of a goofe.

This genus contains only a fingle species and a variety, both na tives of North-America: it is fometimes called the Skimmer, from the manner in which it collects its food on the water with the lower mandible; by others it is called the Shearbill and Cutwater.---The Bill of this bird is greatly compreffed, lower mandible much larger than the upper.---Noftrils, linear and pervious.---A small back toe.--Tail, a little forked. In its habits and figure it resembles the gulls.

GEN. 7. STERNA.

This genus contains the Terns and the Nodies: of the former there are seven species, all of which are found about the feas of America; of the latter we know of but one common to the fame fitua tions; indeed it is nothing but a species of the tern rather smaller. Characters-Bill, fhort, flender and pointed.---Noftrils, linear... Tongue, flender and sharp.---Wings, very long.---A small back toe.--Tail, forked.

GEN. 8. LARUS.

The characters of this genus, which comprehends the Gulls and Mews, names which only distinguish this family into the greater and leffer gulls, are---Bill, ftrong, bending down at the point, on the under part of the lower mandible an angular prominency.---Noftrils, oblong and narrow, placed in the middle of the bill.---Tongue, a little cloven.Body, light...-Wings, long.---Legs, small, naked above

the