206 CURSORES 



CHAPTER XI. 



CURSORES: ORALLY. 



RAIL WHOOPING CRANE PLOVERS SAND PIPERS KILDEER 



SPOTTED SAND PIPERS SNIPE WOODCOCK WHITE 



IBIS ROSEATE SPOONBILL NIGHT HERON BITTERN 

 WHITE EGRET SNOWY HERON AMERICAN FLAMINGO. 



IN entering upon the consideration of the fifth 

 order of Birds (Grallatores), the scenes through 

 which our rambles lay will change materially. The 

 birds we have thus far described, have, for the most 

 part, led us to the fields and woods, where we have 

 marked their graceful motions, flitting from tree to 

 tree and from grove to grove, or with matchless ease 

 winging their wild aerial course, high in the vault 

 of Heaven. But those which we now come to treat 

 of are mostly the denizens of low marshy grounds, 

 the borders of streams and lakes, and the shores of 

 the Ocean, localities which their peculiar formation 

 fits them to inhabit. With a few exceptions, a long 

 bill and a pair of long legs, and a correspondingly 

 long nock, are the prominent characteristics of this 

 order. 



The first family which we shall notice is that of 

 the Rail. These birds frequent most of the low 

 grounds bordering on streams and lakes, both inland 



