THE CRANE KIND. 339 



of the colour of rusty iron. It is thus that we 

 are obliged to substitute dry description for in- 

 structive history, and employ words to express 

 those shadings of colour which the pencil alone 

 can convey. 



CHAPTER X. 



OF SMALL BIRDS OF THE CRANE KIND, WITH THE 

 THIGHS PARTLY BARE OF FEATHERS. 



As I have taken my distinctions rather from the 

 general form and manners of birds, than from 

 their minuter, though perhaps more precise dis- 

 criminations, it will not be expected that I should 

 here enter into a particular history of a numerous 

 tribe of birds, whose manners and forms are so 

 very much alike. Of many of them we have 

 scarcely any account in our historians, but tedious 

 descriptions of their dimensions, and the colour 

 of their plumage ; and of the rest, the history of 

 one is so much that of all, that it is but the same 

 account repeated to a most disgusting reiteration. 

 I will therefore group them into one general 

 draught; in which the more eminent, or the 

 most whimsical, will naturally stand forward on 

 the canvass. 



In this group we find an extensive tribe of na- 

 tive birds, with their varieties and affinities ; and 



