LONG-TOES. 149 



Pratincoles, Flamingoes, and some other genera which 

 Cuvier appends to this group, without meaning it to 

 be understood that they naturally belong to it, are 

 also of a mixed character. The Pratincoles have at 

 least some of the characters of those insectivorous 

 birds which have syndactylic feet, and also some of 

 those of the gallinidae ; and it does not appear that, 

 though they frequent the margins or surfaces of the 

 waters, they are in any respect wading birds. It is 

 also not very easy to assign the proper place of the 

 flamingoes in any system which pretends to be quite 

 natural. 



Corn Crake. 



We must not, however, either wonder, or be per- 

 plexed in our inquiries, at these apparent anomalies. 

 It has been hinted, that the rich places of nature are 

 those at which birds appear to interfere with, or, if 

 the expression may be allowed, to overlap each other, 

 agreeing in some of their characters, and differing in 

 others ; and as the margins of the waters are the 

 richest places, and the places which are most per- 

 manently rich in the food of birds, it is natural to 

 expect that upon these there should be the greatest 

 interference of race with race, and consequently the 

 greatest difficulty in so separating them from each 

 other, as to give distinctness to their systematic 

 arrangement. 



