4 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 



The Gallinules and Rails also form, on the ground, a very 

 bulky nest ; but the rest are content with making a shallow 

 cavity in the sand or gravel, and either leaving it unfurnished, 

 or rudely garnishing it with twigs, straws, or moss. Very 

 many species, those especially of the families of Pluvialina?, 

 Totanina?, and Scolopacinse, lay four pyriform spotted eggs, 

 of which the pointed ends meet. Those of the family of 

 Rails and Gallinules lay from five to ten or more ovate or 

 oblong spotted eggs, resembling those of various partridges 

 and grouse. The eggs of the Tantalinee or Ibises are also 

 oblong and spotted, but fewer. The Herons and birds of 

 allied genera have from two to four broadly elliptical eggs, 

 generally of a greenish-blue colour, sometimes white, rarely 

 spotted. 



I am not aware of a single character common to all the 

 Grallatorial birds. The same may be said of the Natatorial, 

 and indeed of the Aerial and Terrestrial groups. Supposing 

 we look to the bill for characters, we find it excessively long 

 in the Curlews and Godwits, and shorter than the head in 

 some Crakes and Sand-Plovers ; conical in Herons, cylin- 

 drical in Snipes ; extremely robust in Storks, extremely 

 slender in Stilts and Avocets ; straight, decurved, recurved 

 in different species ; rigid in some, flexible in others. In 

 like manner the tibia is bare to a great extent in Storks and 

 Herons, feathered to the joint in Woodcocks and some Bit- 

 terns ; the tarsus extremely long in some, short in others ; 

 the toes very long or very short, three or four in number ; 

 the claws long and slender, or short and broad. The wings 

 are very long and very broad, very long and narrow, ex- 

 tremely diminutive, so as to be incapable of raising the bird 

 from the ground ; rounded or pointed, spurred, knobbed, or 

 plain on the carpus. The tail may be short or long, rounded, 

 wedge-shaped, even, or emarginate, of ten or twelve feathers. 

 Every organ differs in the same manner. The tongue is 

 short, extremely short, or the reverse ; the gullet narrow or 

 wide ; the stomach membranous or very muscular ; the in- 

 testine short or excessively long, of moderate width or ex- 

 tremely narrow; the coeca short or long, or wanting altogether. 

 Then what are these Grallatores, and how are they distin- 



