CLASS AYES 607 



The GRUiD.'E are the cranes, -courlans, and trumpeters. The 

 cranes are large birds with long legs and neck. They live in 

 grassy plains and marshes. The whooping-crane, Grus ameri- 

 cana, measures about four and a half feet in length, and has a 

 spread of wings of about eight feet. It breeds in central North 

 America, making a nest of grasses 'and weed stalks on marshy 

 ground. 



Order 18. Charadriiformes. PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS. Five of 

 the twelve families in this order have North American repre- 



FIG. 496. : Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macidaria. (From Davenport, 

 after Fuertes.) 



sentatives : (i) the CHARADRIID^E, plovers, snipes, and curlews; 

 (2) the JACANID^:, jacanas; (3) the LARID.E, gulls, terns, and 

 skimmers; (4) the ALCID.E, auks; and (5) the COLUMBID^E, 

 pigeons. 



The CHARADRIID^E are the turnstones, oyster-catchers, lap- 

 wings, true plovers, dotterels, avocets, stilts, phalaropes, sand- 

 pipers, curlews, whimbrels, woodcock, snipe, and dowitchers. 



