ORDER HERODIONES. 3 



long and loose on the neck, which is nude in part behind, but there are no long 

 plumes either on the head or back. They have ten tail feathers, and but two pairs 

 of powder-down tracts. The legs are broadly scaled in front, with the outer toe 

 shorter than the inner, the middle toe and claw very long ; and their claws gen- 

 erally are long, and but slightly curved. The bill is elongated and serrated on 

 the edge. 



Bones of the Common Heron and of the Bitterns have been found in the 

 peat of the fen country in a sub-fossil condition. Fossil forms, allied to the 

 Ardeida have been described from strata as old as the Miocene and the London 

 clay. 



In order to give some conception of the profusion in which the nests of the 

 various Herons and other marsh-loving birds, are met with, in such well protected 

 impenetrable paradises as the Slavonian reed beds, and sallow brakes, or Hungarian 

 marshes, Mr. Eagle Clarke records that he saw, in one bush, " one nest of Common 

 Heron, two of Pigmy Cormorant, three of Night Heron, two of Little Egret, one 

 of Squacco, and three of Glossy Ibis. Nor was this a singular instance, for most 

 of the trees were equally laden. * * *. On every side arose a vast body of 

 birds, the beating of their pinions and their harsh notes producing quite a deafening 

 sound ; and soon the whole colony, estimated at thirty thousand, was on the wing, 

 their confused flight resembling the gyrations of a swarm of bees. After a short 

 interval they grew somewhat accustomed to our presence, and perched on the 

 surrounding bushes, so close that the red eye of the Night- Heron and the yellow 

 patches between the toes of the Little Egret were plainly to be seen, while they 

 swayed about uncomfortably on the topmost twigs of the sallows along with the 

 Glossy Ibis, Pigmy Cormorant, Common Heron, and Spoonbill." 



The Ciconiidce, or Storks, have the bill straight, pointed, and longer than the 

 head ; the legs long and the toes short, with a web uniting the second, third, and 

 fourth ; the hind toe united to the leg above the plane of the other toes ; the 

 claw of the middle toe is not pectinated, and the tail is short and rounded. The 

 eyes are surrounded by naked skin. The Storks have no powder-down patches. 



Storks, of which there are about twenty species, are found in all the six 

 great zoo-geographical regions of the globe ; but only two species, both of the 

 same genus, Ciconia, belong to the Palaearctic region, and visit Britain. 



The Ibises, Ibididce, claim relationship with the Storks, but more closely with 

 the next family, the Spoonbills. The shape of the bill, which is long, narrow, 

 and sickle shaped, soft at the base and hard at the top, at once distinguishes them 

 from the Herons, the Storks, and the Spoonbills. Not less distinctive is the 

 featherless condition, in most of the genera, of the head and more or less 



