BIRDS 



389 



(/) Gruiformes. Cranes and their relatives, includ- Cranes 

 ing the rails and bustards. They have no true 

 crop. . 



(m) Charadriiformes. Plovers, snipes, curlews, gulls, Plovers, 

 terns, auks, and pigeons, a mixed assem- 

 blage, declared by the anatomists to be more 

 or less related ! The marked differences be- 

 tween the several families have to do with the 

 adaptation of the birds to particular modes of 

 life by the sea, on the rocks, or in the forest 

 - and to particular feeding habits. At the 

 same time it is remarkable how certain types, 

 seemingly fitted only for a particular kind of 

 existence, can modify their habits to suit the 

 circumstances. Thus the curlew, with its 

 extremely long and slender curved bill, is 

 beautifully adapted for extracting mollusks 

 or worms from deep mud or sand by the water's 

 edge. In Labrador, however, Dr. Coues 

 found the birds feeding almost entirely on the 

 crowberry, the fruit of a hillside plant. The 

 gulls, which we 

 think of as ex- 

 clusively ma- 

 rine, abound in 

 the great basin 

 between the 

 Rocky Moun- 

 tains and the 

 Sierra Nevada;* 

 and in the early 

 days of Utah 

 saved the farm- 

 ers by devour- 



From "Animate Creation" 

 FIG. 162. The rock dove (Columba lima), 

 the species from which the domesticated 

 pigeons have been derived. 



