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HERODIONES: HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES. 647 
VIII Order HERODIONES: Herons and their Allies. 
Altricial Grallatores: including the 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 vertebree, and is capable of very strong flexion 
in S-shape. The tibie are naked below; the podo- 
theca varies. The general pterylosis is peculiar, in 
the presence, in central groups of this order, of 
powder-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 psilopeedie ; 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 ‘“cultrirostral” 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 base where the skull contracts gradu- 
ally in sloping down to meet it; but deviations from 
such typical shape are frequent and striking. It is 
firmly affixed to the skull, and always longer than the 
head. The nostrils are small, elevated, surrounded 
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Fig. 453. — The Bittern’s Bog. (From by bone and a horny sheath, with little if any soft 
Michelet.) skin. The wings normally show a striking difference 
from those of Limicole, in being long, broad, and ample. The tail is short and few-feathered, 
usually having 12 rectrices. 
The cranial characters, though varying to some extent, agree in several important respects. 
The palatal structure is desmognathous, but without keel along line of junction; the mavillo- 
palatines are large and spongy. The nasal bones are typically holorhinal ; schizorhinal in 
Ibides ; in which, also, the angle of the mandible is produced and recurved, being normally 
truncate. The sternum is ample, once or twice notched on each side behind. The cervical 
vertebree are numerous; usually 15-17. The trachea and bronchi present some remarkable 
dispositions, but here and there only, such conformations being therefore not characteristic of 
the order. The carotids are double (in Botaurus (fig. 93) unique, as far as known, in uniting at 
once). An intestinal ececum or two coca, present. Different genera vary in the classificatory 
muscles of the leg, the ambiens, femoro-caudal, and its accessory being present or absent. 
