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, Aclilis macularia. (From Davenport, 



after Fuertes.) 



sentatives : (1) the Ciiaradriid.e, plovers, snipes, and curlews; 

 (2) the Jacanid/E, 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 dowitcher*. 



