Fig. 84, Ardea cinerea and young. ('From the group in the British Museum. 



Order XXI. HERODIONES. 



The Ibises, Spoonbills, Storks, and Herons have long been 

 classed together, though their relations to each other, and to the 

 Phrenicopteri on one side and the Steganopodes on the other, give 

 rise to a great variety of opinions. 



All are marsh birds, and resemble Cranes and Limicola3 in having 

 lengthened bills, necks, arid legs, and all formed, with those types, 

 part of the old order Grallatores or Waders the Gralla) of 

 Linnaeus. But the Ibises, Storks, and Herons differ widely from 

 Cranes, Rails, Plovers, &c. in anatomy and in their young being 

 helpless when hatched. In this respect and in the characters of 

 the palate, the Herodiones resemble the Steganopodes and the 

 -Accipitrine birds, to which they are more nearly allied than to the 

 schizoguathous Limicolae and Grallae. 



