GRALLATORES. 425 



and rushes — to the farthest shallow in the lake and 

 the river — through the sedges and reeds by the 

 marsh, and on the beach as far as the ebbing tide 

 retires. Mountainward they approach the haunts 

 which are occupied in succession by the Black-gaine, 

 the Grouse, and the Ptarmigan. Fieldward they 

 border with the Partridge and the Rook, and nearer 

 the waters they are the immediate neighbours of the 

 swimming bu'ds. The pastures which they occupy 

 are more under the influence of the seasons than 

 either the richer or more cultivated parts of the 

 country. The supply of food along the shores is 

 most abundant in the winter^ as the waters, being 

 in a state of stronger agitation, detach and cast to 

 the strand a greater number and variety of esculent 

 matters ; so that though the birds may be driven 

 inland during the violence of a storm, they speedily 

 throng back to the beach when it is over, to feast 

 on the supplies which have been there collected. 

 Their food consists of various matters, — of the spawn 

 of fishes, of fry in a very young state, and of innu- 

 merable small animals that come ashore upon 

 uprooted seaweeds, or are to be found under loosened 

 stones, and in the general accumulations of sand, 

 ooze, and other debris, which the troubled waters 

 roll about while in agitation, and ultimately leave 

 on the beaches, deposited in order of gravitation, 

 and consequently with the organic portion upper- 

 most. Nor are the land floods unserviceable in 

 adding to this winter store of food, for they sweep 

 from the beds and out of the torn banks of the rivers 

 a vast multitude of little animals, which are then 

 found in great abundance upon the oozy banks and 

 in the slimy beds of the shallows of estuaries and 

 creeks. It is in such localities only that the full 

 value of the Grallatorial birds can be estimated, or 

 the part that they act in the grand economy of 

 Nature properly seen. — {Mudie.) 



To this extensive order belong the Plovers, the 

 Herons, the Snipes, the Screamers, and the Rails. 



