Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/785

Rh In studying the group of rail-forms and their kin we meet with many interesting types. This great rail group appears to be connected with or linked to the pygopodous birds or divers by two genera of very interesting and as yet little known birds. These are Heliornis and Podica of the family Heliornithidæ, and commonly known as "finfeet." Very little is known of their anatomy, and absolutely nothing of their eggs and nidification.

New Zealand, which furnishes us with so many remarkable types, has another genus leading off from the rails. These are the "ocydromes," curious birds with perfect wings yet incapable

{{c|{{fs85|{{sc| Fig. 2.—The Trumpeter}} {Psophia leucoptera). By the author, after Mitchell.}}}}

of flight. They are doomed to speedy extinction, and their anatomy and life history stand sadly in need of careful working up.

Another great center of bird life is seen in the plover-snipe group, and some important types link it as "outliers" with various other groups. For instance, in the first place, we have that