RASORES AND GRALLATORES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



" Ces oiseaux (gallinacs) meritent cependent bien plus 

 notre attention, si nous envisageons sous le rapport de 

 rutilite et des jouissances que nous serions a meme d'en 

 retirer : ce n'est qu'a Tinsouciance qui nous est si na- 

 turelle, qu'on doit reprocher de n 'avoir pas des longtemps 

 mis en ceuvre les moyens necessaires pour nous rendre 

 familiers des etres qui, en s'accoutoutumant a Thomme au- 

 roient continue de vivre sous son domaine, et lui seroient 

 devenus de la premiere utilite." TEMMINCK. 



" In exploring the tract which leads us, step by step, to an 

 acquaintance with them (grallatores), we must travel 

 through reeds and rushes, with doubtful feet, over the 

 moss-covered, faithless quagmire, amidst oozing rills and 

 stagnant pools." BEWICK. 



M Incapable of that perfection in swimming which is de- 

 veloped in the next order, the Waders may be termed 

 Marine Rasores. or Fowls of the Sea. They are always 

 walking on its shores, or on the sides of its fresh waters ; 

 and they depend as much upon their ambulations, for 

 seeking sustenance, as upon their wings, for those long 

 expeditions they are known to make." SWAINSON. 



THE Rasorial order of birds in the British Islands, 

 contains a number of species so limited, that it 

 has been necessary, in the present volume, to 

 join with it the history of the Grallatores or 

 Waders. The direct importance of the first to 

 man, whether in a wild or in their reclaimed and 

 cultivated state, is greater than that of any of 



