B I R I). 



415 



have already mentioned bow well they are suited 

 for escaping the t'oe or gaining the perch ; and the 

 looseness of the scapular socket is not the least beau- 

 tiful part of their adaptation. The haunts of the 

 birds are among shrubs, and bushes, and tall herbage, 

 and they have often to use their wings and get quickly 

 above their ground enemies from among these. They 

 have also to close their wings among interruptions, 

 and with as little rustling of the wing or that which 

 disturbs it, as possible. The broad wing and the 

 loose and moveable nature of its articulation, answer 

 another purpose in the economy of these birds, 

 which though not so immediately important to the 

 individual, is equally so to' the race : the females 

 gather their young under their wings in the early 

 - 'it' (heir existence. This protection of nature 

 appears to be necessary, as the young of these birds 

 are but lightly covered with down, as there is no 

 formal nest for them, and as they are, even in the 

 perching species, unable to perch till they are fledged. 

 They have, however, more use of their legs, more 

 general activity, and are better fitted for finding their 

 own food when they have the skill, than the young 

 of any of the preceding orders. 



This state of the young when produced, corrobo- 

 borated as it is by their general structure and habits, 

 very clearly points out the place of the gallinaceous 

 birds in a natural system of arrangement. If the 

 birds of most powerful wing, and of which the air is 

 the principle element the races which most perfectly 

 answer the definition of the term bird, in being most 

 exclusively dependent on their wings, are to be 

 placed foremost in the system, as they unquestion- 

 ably ought to be ; and if the gradation is to be regular 

 from them to the races which are wholly dependent 

 on the earth, and can neither tly nor swim, and pro- 

 ceed from them to those which are wholly dependent 

 on the water ; then, unquestionably, the proper place 

 of the gallinida; is immediately before these ground 

 birds, which have less power of flight than they, and 

 after the pigeons. 



This mode of arrangement, as we shall attempt to 

 prove in a short induction from the particulars, after 

 we have given an outline of the remainder of these, 

 is borne out by a regular gradation in all the leading 

 habits of the several races from the time that they 

 leave the shell till they become parents, and display 

 those instincts which complete their mature character 

 in the way in which they provide for, or otherwise 

 treat their young. There are apparent anomalies in 

 such an arrangement, because at some parts of it 

 there seem blanks, where the characters of the one 

 division do not meet those of the next one so as to 

 preserve the continuity ; and there seem at other 

 places to be redundances, where two races, different 

 in some of their characters and habits, have others 

 so much in common or so equally, that it is not very 

 in say which ought, in strict propriety, to be 

 placed first. In some instances, these wants and 

 redundances, these brinks and doubles in the chain, 

 si) to speak, exist only in our partial view of the 

 matter. But when we consider that birds, in one or 

 another of their varied tribes, inhabit the whole land 

 and sea, and that the characters of these are, in some 

 places, uniform over a considerable range, and in 

 others constantly varying ; that, some are exuberantly 

 productive, and others bordering upon sterility ; we 

 may easily sec that the birds must crowd both in 

 species and in numbers to the places of abundant and 



varied production, and be fewer and more uniform 

 where food is scanty and nearly all of the samo 

 description. The natural series of birds is thus not 

 one which can proceed by uniformly equal distances 

 between race and race, but by distances varying 

 with the haunt, and the varying abundance of the 

 food for them, whether local or seasonal. 



Cuvicr's fifth order, which is a very numerous one, 

 and includes birds very varied in their appearances 

 and habits, is that to which he gives the name of 

 ECHASSIEHS, or, " stilt birds," birds, generally speak- 

 ing, with long legs, all capable of walking, and many 

 of them fleet in that motion, but varying much in 

 their powers of flight, and also in the shape of their 

 bills, according to the nature of their food, and the 

 places in which they seek it. They are otherwise 

 styled Oiscaux dc rivage, birds of the water's edge, 

 bank birds, shore birds, grallee or waders, and gralla- 

 tores, or gmllidcee, birds resembling wading birds. 

 They are also sometimes divided into two orders or 

 sub-orders, Cursorcx or runners, and Grallidac or 

 waders. But no name, whether founded on one 

 haunt, habit, or peculiarity of structure, as all of those 

 are, will suit the whole, neither can any general defi- 

 nition or description be so framed as to be explana- 

 tory of the whole. 



There are few or none of the orders already men- 

 tioned, which do not reach the water's edge in some 

 of their genera ; and even the most aquatic of the 

 sea-birds are reared on the shores, and compelled to 

 seek the shelter and safety of these when the ocean 

 is in its fury. Some of the eagles fish ; some of the 

 omnivorous birds seek their food within flood-mark 

 when the tide ebbs; the swallow tribe skim the sur- 

 faces of pools ; almost all the syndactyli live in holes 

 in the banks, and the king-fisher is named from the 

 manner in which it finds its food ; even the common 

 pigeons are found wild in sea-beaten cliffs ; and one 

 species at least of gallinaceous bird, has the feet par- 

 tially webbed, and frequents marshy places. When 

 therefore we speak of a " bank bird," our expression 

 is exceedingly vague, unless we go on to explain at 

 length how it is employed on the bank, and that 

 explanation would give us the information as well 

 without the name as with it. This is therefore a 

 portion of the class, and it is a large and im- 

 portant portion, which is not clearly set forth in the 

 <ystem. 



The distinctions of runners (Cursorcs), and waders 

 [Grallidts), are applicable and definite enough, as 

 expressive of the extremes of the order ; but as 

 walking and wading are motions of the same kind 

 and performed with the same organs, only with a 

 difference of the element, and a difference of the 

 organs to adapt them to these. But they interfere 

 on the confines ; and there are some, indeed many, 

 of the species which perform their ground motions so 

 equally on the land and in the water, that they cannot 

 with propriety be considered either as walkers or as 

 waders. If, however, we separate those species 

 which have no aquatic habit, but are found upon dry 

 places only, and they are habitually found upon pas- 

 tures more arid than any other ground birds, and 

 consider them as CURSORES (for they are all swift of 

 foot, and the majority of them are incapable of flight), 

 making them a distinct order ; and then include all 

 the others in another order GRALLID^., or birds 

 which can and occasionally do wade, we shall per- 

 haps come as near to accuracy as is possible without 



