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GRALLATORES, WADING BIRDS. 241 
enlarges regularly to the forehead, where the skull contracts gradually in sloping 
down to meet it. The palate is desmognathous. The wings normally show a 
striking difference from those of Limicole, being long, broad and ample, much 
as in the next group. 
The herons (Ardeide, beyond), are typical of this group. The only extra-limital 
family is that of the Ciconiide, or storks; these are birds standing very near the 
ibises and spoonbills (beyond), and distinguished from the herons, among other 
circumstances, by the absence of powder-down tracts. Excepting the jabiru of 
tropical America, Mycteria americana, the storks are all Old World, and chiefly 
inhabit warm countries; there are only 8-10 species, representing nearly as many 
genera of authors; among these, Anastomus and Hiator are remarkable for a wide 
interval between the cutting edges of the bill, which only come into apposition at 
base and tip. The singular African Scopus wmbretta, type of a subfamily at least, 
is often placed among the herons, but its pterylosis is that of the storks. The 
eranes, which have been associated with Herodiones on account of their stature and 
other superficial resemblances, unquestionably belong to the next division, where 
also several doubtful forms appear to fall. 
Ui. ALECTORIDES. Cranes, Rails and their allies. A portion of these birds, 
representing the crane type, have a general resemblance to the foregoing, but are 
readily distinguished by the technical characters given beyond under the head of 
Gruidee, and in essential respects accord with the rest, representing the rail type. 
The latter are birds of medium and small size, with compressed body, and the head 
feathered. The neck and legs are not particularly lengthened, but as a rule the 
toes are remarkably long, enabling the birds to run lightly over the soft oozy ground 
and floating vegetation of the reedy swamps and marshes they inhabit. This 
length of the toes has given a name, Macrodactyli, to the group ; their shy retiring 
habit of skulking among the rushes has caused them to be sometimes called 
Latitores (skulkers). Their nature is precocial ; the eggs are numerous, usually laid 
on the ground, in a rude nest. The nourishment is essentially the same as that of 
the Limicole, but it is simply picked up from the surface, not felt for in the mud, 
nor stamped out of the ground. The hallux is usually lengthened, and but little 
elevated ; the feet are conspicuously lobate in some forms. The wings are usually 
short, rounded and concave; the tail is very short, few-feathered, often held cocked 
up, and wagged in unison with a bobbing motion of the head that occurs with each 
step taken. The Alectorides are schizognathous. 
This country affords typical representatives of the two leading forms, that of the 
cranes, and of the rails, coots and gallinules, as given beyond; there are, however, 
a number of remarkable outliers, that may be briefly mentioned, as follows ;— 
The kagu, Rhinochetus jubatus of New Caledonia, and the carle, Zurypyga helias 
of Guiana, are each the type and single representative of a family which seems near 
the cranes in principal osteological characters (Hualey), although pterylographi- 
cally they are more like herons, both possessing powder-down tracts (Bartlett) ; 
and Hurypyga, in particular, resembles herons in other respects. More closely 
allied to the cranes are the trumpeters, Psophiidew, of one genus and few species of 
South America, with the cariamas, Cariamidce, of the same country, represented 
only by the Cariama cristata and the Chunga burmeisterii. The horned screamers, 
Palamedeide, of South America, consisting of three species, Palamedea cornuta, 
Chauna chavaria and CO. derbiana, seem to be nearer the rails, and also closely 
approach the water birds; one of them is by some considered the nearest living 
KEY TO N. A. BIRDS. 31 
