i82 Bird -Lore 



visit us. Indeed, no order contains a more interesting or remarkable group 

 of birds than Order VII, for here belong the Roseate Spoonbill, the Ibises 

 with long, curved bills, the Storks, the exquisite Egrets, the Herons of darker 

 plumage, and the stealthy Bitterns. Largely gregarious by habit, it has been 

 easy for man to nearly exterminate several of these species. It is, perhaps, 

 well that so few of them come north to spend the summer with us. The Great 

 Blue Heron is a traveler of no mean extent, since it comes from the Weit Indies,. 

 Panama and Venezuela to Prince Edward Island, northern Ontario, central 

 Alberta, Manitoba, and southeastern British Columbia. 



Order VIII is a little-known group, so far as the ordinary bird-student is 

 concerned, and small wonder, when we think of the secretive, swift-footed 

 birds which belong to it. Who has tried to watch a Rail or a Gallinule or the 

 southern Limpkin, or who has had an opportunity to see the great Cranes 

 which have become so rare in our day? The Coot, of all these short-tailed 

 runners, takes to the water with the ease of a Duck. During migration, its 

 white bill, ringed about with brownish spots, makes it a conspicuous object, 

 in spite of its dull slate-colored plumage. Some Coots remain in southern 

 Mexico, Guatemala and the West Indies, to breed; while others, coming up 

 from Colombia and Central America, spread out widely over the northern 

 half of the United States and southern British America. 



And now we come to birds of somewhat smaller build, and of even greater 

 variety, the Shore Birds, among whom is our most famous long-distance 

 traveler, the Golden Plover. No mean tourist is the Spotted Sandpiper, so 

 common along inland waters, as well as on the coast. Take the map and find 

 southern Brazil and central Peru; then go north to the tree-limit in Alaska 

 and on to Mackenzie, Keewatin, Ungava and Newfoundland, taking a jump 

 across the ocean to Great Britain and Helgoland, for even to these distant 

 parts has this Sandpiper been known to stray. 



The Shore Birds are hard to recognize until one becomes used to their 

 motions, flight and call-notes, but, once learned, they are seldom forgotten. 

 The names of the different birds in this order suggest the wonderful variety 

 of feathered travelers along our shores and waterways. Phalarope, Avocet, 

 Stilt, Woodcock, Snipe, Dowitcher, Sandpiper, Knot, Stint, Dunlin, Sander- 

 ling, Godwit, Green-shank, Yellow-legs, Willet, Tatler, Ruff, Curlew, Lap- 

 wing, Dotterel, Plover, Surf Bird, Turnstone, Oyster-catcher and Jacana are 

 words to whet the imagination and arouse the curiosity. 



Order X we must skip here, since it contains only resident birds, the Grouse, 

 Bob-white, Ptarmigans, Partridges, Prairie Hens, Wild Turkeys, Curassows 

 and Guans. Like Orders VI and XIII, it is interesting to study. 



Order XI is not as large as some of the other groups, but it will always be 

 famous on account of the Passenger Pigeon, "most beautiful of its kind," which 

 it is feared, is now completely exterminated. The Mourning, or Carolina, 

 Dove, which is far more common west of the Alleghanies than in the Atlantic 



