WADING BIRDS. 



545 



^.-Long-billed curiew.-From 



Allied to the gallinules is the " giant " Or Gallinula (Le- 



guatia) gigantea of Schlegel (Fig. 467), which formerly lived 



in the Mascarene Islands, having been observed as late as 

 ] 694. It stood two metres (over six feet) high. With it was 



associated a large blue galli- 

 nule Porphyrio (Notornis ?} 

 cwrulescens Selys which was 

 last seen on the Isle Bourbon 

 between 1669 and 1672. It 

 was incapable of flight, but 

 ran with exceeding swiftness. 

 The cranes are of great 

 stature, the legs and neck very 

 long, with the head sometimes 

 curiously tufted. With the 



true herons are associated the night herons and the bitterns 



of the United States, the boat-billed heron of Central Am- 



erica, and the odd Balwniceps rex of Africa, which has an 



enormous head and broad, large bill. The herons are suc- 



ceeded by the singular spoon-bills represented by the rose- 



ate spoon-bill, and which, with 



the wood Ibis and other species 



of this group, adorn the swamps 



and bayous of the South Atlan- 



tic and Gulf States. 



The shore-birds, or the cur- 



lews (Numenius longirostris, 



Fig. 468), plover, sandpipes, 



peeps, snipes (Gallinago Wil- 



sonii, Fig. 469), woodcock, and 



stilt (Himantopus nigricollis, 



Fig. 470), are long-legged, long- 



billed birds, going in flocks by 



the seashore or river-banks, 



sometimes living inland on low 



plains ; they are not, generally speaking, nest-builders, the 



eggs being laid in rude nests or hollows in the ground. 



They feed on worms, insects, and snails, either picking 



them up from the surface or boring for them in the mud or 



Fig. 469. American Snipe. From 

 Coues' Key. 



