Storks and Ducks. 7 1 



legged birds which are often waders in habit, and 

 are characterised by possessing small hind toes and 

 long bills. They feed on worms, molluscs, and fish, 

 rarely on vegetables. The side of the head presents 

 no bare patch between the angle of the mouth and 

 the eye, and the palate exhibits a long cleft between 

 the two lateral halves of the upper jawbones. To this 

 order belong the plovers and peewits, coots and 

 waterhens, corncrakes and snipe, the cranes and 

 bustards, oyster-catchers, herons, and bitterns. 



43. Order 10, Storks (Ciconise). This group also 

 consists of birds with long legs and bills, which in 

 habit resemble the last, but differ from them essen- 

 tially in their structure. Thus they have the two 



FIG. 32. B 



Head of ibis. Foot of ibis. 



lateral sides of the upper-jaw united along the middle 

 line of the palate ; the lore or space between the 

 angle of the mouth and the eye is bare, and the hind 

 toe is long and functional. The best known examples 



