HERODIONES: HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



863 



-dozen, 1.75-2.00 X 1.20-1.3.5, shaped like aa average hen's egg, clear clay-color, uniformly 

 and minutely dotted with dark brown and neutral tint, usually like pin-heads, sometimes in 

 larger blotches. The young hatch covered with black down, fantastically striped with bri"-ht 

 orange-red, the bill vermilion tipped with black. 



F. a'tra. (Lat. ater, atra, atrum, black.) European Coot. Like the last: bill and frontal 

 shield entirely white; edge of wing and of 1st primary white, but no white on the crissum. 

 Europe, etc. ; only North American as casual in Greenland. 



Order HERODIONES: Herons and their Allies. 



Altricial Grallatores : including Herons, Storks, _ . _^^ — ^-^^ 



Ibises, Spoonbills, and related birds. The species 

 average of large size, some standing among the tall- 

 est of Carinate birds, with compressed body and ex- 

 tremely long neck and legs. The neck has usually 

 15-17 vertebrae, and is capable of very strong flexion 

 in S-shape. The tibise are naked below; the podo- 

 theca varies. The general pterylosis is peculiar, in 

 the presence, in central groups of this order, of pow- 

 der-down tracts, and in some other respects. The 

 oil-gland is present, and tufted. A part if not the 

 whole of the head is naked as a rule, as much of 

 the neck also frequently is. The toes, usually long 

 .and slender, are never fully webbed. The hallux is 

 more or less lengthened, and either little elevated, or 

 else perfectly insistent. A foot of insessorial character 

 results; the species frequently perch on trees, where 

 the nest is usually placed. The physiological nature 

 is altricial and usually psilopaedic ; the young hatch- 

 ing naked, unable to stand, and being fed in the nest. 

 The food is fish, reptiles, mollusks, and other animal 

 matters, generally procured by spearing with a quick 

 thrust of the bill, given as the birds stand in wait, 

 or stalk stealthily along ; hence they are sometimes 

 called Gradatores (stalkers). The bill normally rep- 

 resents the " cultirostral " pattern; it is as a rule of 

 lengthened wedge shape, hard and acute at end if not 

 hard throughout, with sharp cutting edges; enlarging 

 regularly to the l)ase, where the skull contracts gradu- 

 ally in sh)piiig down to meet it ; but deviations from 

 sucli typical shape are frequent and striking. It is 

 firmly affixed to the sknll, and always longer than the 

 head. The nostrils are small, elevated, surrounded 

 by bone and a horny sheath, with little if any soft 

 skin. The wings normally show a striking difference 

 from tlioso of Limicohe, in being long, broad, and arnph 

 usually having 12 rectrices. 



The cranial characters, though varying to some extent, agree in several important re 

 apects : palatal structure desniognathous, but witliout keel alouij line of junction ; niaxillo 



(From 



)lc. The tail is short and fcw-fcatluTcd, 



