LATITORES. SKULKERS. 



509 



The plumage is firm ; the wings short or moderate ; the 

 tail very small. 



They inhabit moist meadows, marshes, and the sides of 

 lakes and rivers. Some of them are strictly terrestrial ; but 

 by far the greater number readily betake themselves to the 

 water, and many habitually reside upon it. They run with 

 great speed, and make their way with wonderful ease among 

 the rank and dense herbage, where they conceal themselves, 

 and from which they are with difficulty raised. Their flight 

 is heavy, but rather quick, and usually not extended, so that 

 they seem unfitted for long migrations, which, however, some 

 of them perform. They construct bulky nests, which are 

 placed on the ground, or raised amidst shallow water ; and 

 lay numerous spotted eggs. The young are covered with 

 stifnsh down, and are active from the first. Seeds, insects, 

 worms, and other small animals, form their food. They are 

 more numerous in warm climates, but one species or other is 

 met with everywhere, and a few occur in the coldest. 



They can scarcely be disposed into families, their mutual 

 affinity being so obvious that a separation of them into groups 

 would be merely arbitrary. The genera Aramus and Rallus, 

 however, have the bill so elongated, and so different in form 

 from the short, thick, strong bill of the other genera, that 

 they seem to constitute a group apart. At all events, a 



