Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/286

Rh

Of this very limited, but widely distributed Family, very little is known. Hence their true affinities and their position in the natural system is still matter of some uncertainty. We follow Mr. G. R. Gray, who, in his "Genera of Birds," elevates them, few as they are in number, to the rank of a Family. Some of them seem modified on the type of the Plovers, and manifest in their anatomy and other points an approach to certain Lapwings; others, again, bear a resemblance to the Gallinacea, with which they have been supposed to connect themselves through the great-footed Megapodidæ. But their strongest affinities are, we think, with the Rallidæ, especially with the genus Porphyrio, which they resemble in their greatly developed toes, their spurred wings, and their habits of walking upon aquatic plants.

The beak is usually slender, rather short, more or less compressed at the sides, and curved downwards at the point. The wing is armed at the shoulder with one or more spurs, of a horny texture, and sharp pointed, which, where most developed, seem to be used as weapons of offence. The feet are long, as are also the legs (tibiæ), the lower portion of which is bare of feathers, and scaled; the toes are four, three before and one behind, the latter resting on the ground; the whole are greatly lengthened, and furnished with exceedingly long, straight, and pointed claws, by the expansion of which the birds are enabled to