Bill much shorter than the head, comparatively narrow, deeper than broad at the base, gradually depressed towards the end, which is rounded. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight and sloping to the middle, then nearly straight, at the end decurved; the ridge broad and flat at the base, narrowed between the nostrils, convex towards the end, the sides convex, the edges soft, with about thirty-five lamellæ, the unguis oblong. Nostrils submedial, linear, pervious, nearer the ridge than the margin. Lower mandible flat, ascending, curved at the base, the angle long, rather narrow, the dorsal line very slightly convex, the edges with about forty lamellæ, the unguis broadly elliptical. Head rather large, compressed. Eyes of moderate size. Neck short and thick. Body compact, depressed. Feet very short, placed far back; tarsus very short, compressed, having anteriorly in its whole length a series of small scutella, and above the outer toe a few broad scales, the rest covered with reticular angular scales. Hind toe very small, with a free membrane beneath; anterior toes longer than the tarsus, connected by reticulated membranes, having a sinus on their free margins, the inner with a narrow lobed marginal membrane, the outer with a thickened edge, the third and fourth about equal and longest, all covered above with numerous narrow scutella. Claws small, slightly arched, obtuse, that of first toe very small, of third largest, and with an inner thin edge. Plumage dense, soft and blended. Feathers on the fore part of the head very small and rounded, on the upper and hind parts linear and elongated, as they also are on the lateral and hind parts of the upper neck, so that when raised, they give the head an extremely tumid appearance, which is the more marked that the feathers of the neck immediately beneath are short. Wings very small, decurved, pointed; the outer primaries pointed, the first longest, the rest rapidly graduated; the secondaries incurved, obliquely rounded, the inner much elongated and acuminate. Tail short, graduated, of sixteen feathers.