THE 161 



of wading in the waters, and having their legs continually in moisture, 

 prevent the growth of feathers on those parts ; so that there is a sur. 

 prising difference between the legs of a crane, naked of feathers almost 

 up to the body, and the falcon, booted almost to the very toes. 



The bill also is very distinguishable in most of this class. It is, in 

 general, longer than that of other birds, and in some finely fluted on 

 every side ; while at the point it is possessed of extreme sensibility, and 

 furnished with nerves, for the better feeling their food at the bottom 

 of marshes, where it cannot be seen. Some birds of this class are thus 

 fitted with every convenience : they have long legs, for wading ; long 

 necks for stooping ; long bills, for searching ; and nervous points, for 

 feeding. Others are not so amply provided for ; as some have long bills, 

 but legs of no great length ? and others have long bills, but very short 

 legs. It is a rule which universally holds, that wherever the bird's legs 

 are long, the neck is also long in proportion. It would indeed be an 

 incurable defect in the bird's conformation, to be lifted upon stilts above 

 its food, without being furnished with an instrument to reach it. 



If we consider the natural power of this class, in a comparative view 

 they will seem rather inferior to those of every other tribe. Their nests 

 are' more simple than those of the sparrow ; and their methods of ob- 

 taining food less ingenious than those of the falcon ; the pie ex- 

 ceeds them in cunning ; and though they have all the voraciousness of 

 the poultry tribe, they want their fecundity. None of this kind, there- 

 fore, have been taken into man's society, or under his protection'; they 

 are neither caged, like the nightingale ; nor kept tame, like the turkey ; 

 but lead a life of precarious liberty, in fens and marshes, at the edges 

 of lakes, and along the sea-shore. They all live upon fish or insects, 

 one or two only excepted ; even those that are called mud-suckers, such 

 as the snipe and the woodcock, it is more than probable, grope the 

 bottom of marshy places only for such insects as are deposited there by 

 their kind, and live in a vermicular state, in pools and plashes, till they 

 take wing, and bocome flying insects. 



All this class, therefore, that are fed upon insects, their food being 

 easily digested, are good to be eaten ; while those who live entirely 

 upon fish, abounding in oil, acquire, in their flesh, the rancidity of their 

 diet, and are, in general, unfit for our tables. To savages, indeed, and 

 sailors on a long voyage, every thing that has life seems good to be eaten ; 

 and we often find them recommending those animals as dainties, which 

 they themselves would spurn at, after a course of good living. Nothing 



is more common in their journals, than such accounts as these 



" This day we shot a fox pretty good eating : this day we shot a heron 

 pretty good eating : and this day we killed a turtle which they rank 

 with the heron and the fox, as pretty good eating." Their accounts, 

 therefore, of the flesh of these birds, are not to be depended upon ; 

 and when they cry up the heron or the stork of other countries as luxu- 

 rious food, we must always attend to the state of their appetites who 

 give the character. 



In treating of this class of birds, it will be best to observe the aim 

 plest method possible ; neither to load the memory with numerous 



