DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANISMS. 203 



forms, possibly forming inferior divisions or branches, yet 

 evidently all much allied, the Rallidce (Eails), Otidce (Bustards), 

 partially cursorial in figure, the Charadriadce (Plovers), and 

 the Scolopaddce (Snipes, Sandpipers, and Curlews). All of 

 these birds are mixed feeders, of gentle and timid character, 

 with a tendency to walking power, which in some instances 

 enables the animal to escape more surely by threading the 

 brake than by flight. This last property may be connected in 

 some way with the form of the feet shown by the grebes, phal- 

 leropes, rails, and other genera of the subdivision, these being 

 not webbed, like those of the other swimming birds, but lo- 

 bated ; that is, having a separate lobe expanded along the 

 sides of each toe. 



The origin of all the bird-life as yet spoken of, was that ocean 

 which we now see beating the northern shores of the two great 

 continents. There, almost exclusively, is the nativity of these 

 Swimmers ; there do they yet live in sea and air-darkening 

 abundance. Swimming birds, corresponding to them, scarcely 

 exist anywhere in southern oceans ; there is but one develop- 

 ment of anatine birds in that quarter, in the geese and cere- 

 opsis of Australia. The rise of wading descendants was the 

 consequence of a spread inland ; that is, harmonizing with 

 that system of animal migration which the swimming birds 

 are still seen practising. Pursuing our hypothetic history, 

 this movement of bird-life soon overpassed the borders of rivers, 

 lakes, and marshes, and came to elevated, dry, and sylvan 

 grounds ; and a necessity for other modifications then arose. 



At least two of the subdivisions had descendants suited to 

 the new fields of existence. The cranes, spread as far south 

 as India, there gave forth, as a great colony for its rich woods, 

 the equally beautiful and useful Pheasant family (Phasianidce), 

 comprising the trained peacock, the jungle-fowl, and common 

 poultry ; in central America, in like manner, they presented 

 the corresponding genera of turkeys and currassows. Thus 

 came those useful domestic birds, some of which have been 

 our servants as long as man has had a history, and which have 

 entered so much into our common associations and literature. 

 From them, again, proceeded the Pigeons (Columbidce), whose 

 beauty and innocence are even more endearingly present to us. 

 To those who know only the common fowl and the ordinary 

 pigeon of our country, it may be difficult to suppose such a con- 

 nexion ; but in India, the native seat of the family, the forms 

 of the dove are numerous, and amongst them are species (for 



