CURSORES. RUNNERS. 13 



of the Struthioninae occur in Britain, it is unnecessary that 

 they should particularly engage our attention. 



The Gruince, or Cranes, large birds of which some resemble 

 Herons and others Bustards, are furnished with large and broad 

 wings, elongated legs, with rather short, stout anterior toes, 

 and a diminutive elevated hind toe. Only a single species 

 comes under our notice, formerly not uncommon, but now 

 scarcely ever met with. 



The Otince, or Bustards, which are in some respects allied 

 to the Struthioninae, and to the Perdicinae or Partridges, as 

 well as to the Pluvialinae or Plovers, are large, or of mode- 

 rate size, with ample, rather concave, somewhat rounded 

 wings, and have a correspondingly vigorous flight, although 

 in ordinary circumstances most of them make little use of it. 

 Of this family four species occur in Britain, all of them very 

 rare. The general characters of the Cursores seem to be 

 somewhat as follows : — 



The body is ovate, somewhat compressed, large or mode- 

 rate ; the neck very variable in length ; the head rather 

 small, ovate, rounded above ; the bill of moderate length, 

 straight or nearly so, compressed towards the end, with the 

 point of the upper mandible somewhat decimate and obtuse, 

 the nasal sinus large. The tongue is of moderate length, taper- 

 ing, acute ; the oesophagus of moderate width, with the walls 

 thick ; the proventriculus bulbiform, that is, not wider than 

 the rest of the oesophagus, but having a belt of large glan- 

 dules which gives it a greater breadth ; the stomach a mus- 

 cular gizzard, with strong lateral muscles; the epithelium 

 dense and rugous; the intestine of moderate length and 

 width ; with two moderate, or rather large, nearly cylindrical 

 coeca. The tibiae are bare to a great extent ; the tarsi long, 

 reticulate all round, in a few instances scutellate anteriorly ; 

 the toes short or moderate, thickish, flattened beneath, the 

 anterior spreading, the outer two more or less webbed at the 

 base; the claws short and obtuse. Number in this, as in 

 many other instances, affords no character ; for, not to men- 

 tion the Ostrich, which has only the third and fourth toes, 

 as is shown by their position, and the number of joints, while 

 some have three toes only, the first or hind toe being wanting, 



