that connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 489 



Gruida. 



ArdeidcB, Leach. - J 



ScolopacidcE. 



Rallida, Leach. ; 



Charadriada, Leach. 

 ■ The species that enter into the family of Gruida, most of which 

 were comprised originally in the genus Ardea of Linnaeus, are se- 

 parated from the remainder of that group by their food, which is 

 chiefly vegetable ; their manners, in which they approach nearer 

 the land-birds ; and the formation of their bills and feet, the former 

 of which are more obtuse at the end, and the latter more short than 

 is observable in the true Ardea. In these characters, as well as 

 in their general appearance, more particularly with respect to 

 their plumage, they have a near alliance, as has been elsewhere 

 observed, with the Struthionida of the preceding order. The 

 first group that meets our attention in this family is the Psophia 

 of Linnaeus. This genus, in the comparative shortness of the 

 bill, is connected with Anthropo'ides of M. Vieillot, the type of 

 which is the Demoiselle of Numidia so distinguished in our me- 

 nageries by its graceful form and gestures. The Crowned Crane 

 of Africa, equally familiar to our cabinets and menageries, the 

 Ardea pavonina of Linnaeus, unites this genus to the true Grus 

 of the present day. If the genus Dicholophus of M. Illiger be 

 found to belong to the Wading Birds, of which I have little 

 doubt, its situation will most probably be in the present family, 

 to which it bears a nearer resemblance in plumage and general 

 structure than to any other division of the order. In this case 

 it will form a more immediate link than any group at present 

 known in the family with the Charadriad<E, which meet it at the 

 corresponding extreme of the order ; its shorter and more ele- 

 vated hind toe forming the passage between the fully tetradactyle 

 foot of the Gruidce, and the tridactyle foot of the Charadriadce. 



M. Cuvier 



