768 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



been known since the middle of the last centur}^ we are still 

 quite ignorant of their habits in Nature, and their nidification 

 and a great deal of their anatomy. 



Right here I would invite attention to another peculiar bird, 

 one which we have in the United States, it being confined to the 

 peninsula of Florida, This is the "limpkin" (J.ra?7u^s), a most 

 perfect "go-between," connecting the rails and the cranes. To 

 American ornithologists and others the bird is well known, and 

 it no doubt is indirectly related to PsopJiia. The limpkin has 

 also been found in the West Indies, the Atlantic coast of Central 

 America, and elsewhere.* 



We have next to touch upon two genera of birds that are 

 generally recognized to stand among the most conspicuous outli- 

 ers to be found in the entire range of the science of ornithology. 

 These are the sun bitterns of South America and the kagu of 

 New Caledonia (see Figs. 3 and 4).t If we take as example the 

 better known of the two species of sun bitterns E. lielias, the 

 one shown in our figure it is seen to be a bird about the size of a 

 willet, with a wonderfully variegated plumage, composed of dif- 

 ferent shades of brown, black, gray, and white, the whole being 

 arranged and distributed so as to form a pattern quite as bizarre 

 as that of a whip-poor-will. Very little has been recorded of the 

 habits of the sun bittern, it merely having been stated that it 

 resorts to the undergrowth found along the muddy banks of slug- 

 gish streams, where it feeds upon insects and small fishes. 



Newton, who has observed it in captivity, at the gardens of 

 the Zoological Society of London, says : " It soon becomes tame, 

 and has several times made its nest and reared its young." It has 

 a plaintive, piping note, and " it ordinarily walks with slow and 

 precise steps, keeping its body in a horizontal position, but at 

 times, when excited, jt will go through a series of fantastic per- 

 formances, spreading its broad wings and tail so as to display 

 their beautiful markings." These sun bitterns were known fully 

 three quarters of a century or more to science before anything at 

 all akin to them was found ; but when the island of New Cale- 

 donia became colonized, a bird there discovered, and nowhere else, 

 at last furnished an ally. This was the kagu, mentioned above, 

 now described by ornithologists as Rhinoclietus jubatus. Exter- 

 nally the kagu bears but little resemblance to a sun bittern, 



* Madagascar, from lier avifaunac, also gives us a fine example of an outlier, a bird 

 known to science as Mesites variegatua a most peculiar type, to winch, further on, I shall 

 briefly refer again. 



f Of the sun bitterns there are two species {Eurypyga lielias and K major), and prob- 

 ably of all existing birds none have so puz.zled the systemist with respect to their position 

 in the class. They have in early times been referred to the herons, to the rails, and even 

 to the snipes ! 



