THE CRANE KIND. 341 



ed to the general apprehension. I say, therefore, 

 that all these birds are bare of feathers above the 

 knee, and in some they are wanting half-way up 

 the thigh. The nudity in that part is partly na- 

 tural, and partly produced by all birds of this 

 kind habitually wading in water. The older the 

 bird, the barer are its thighs ; yet even the young 

 ones have not the same downy covering reaching 

 so low as the birds of any other class. Such a 

 covering there would rather be prejudicial, as be- 

 ing continually liable to get wet in the water. 



As these birds are usually employed rather in 

 running than in flying, and as their food lies en- 

 tirely upon the ground, and not on trees, or in 

 the air, so they run with great swiftness for their 

 size, and the length of their legs assists their ve- 

 locity. But as, in seeking their food, they are 

 often obliged to change their station, so also are 

 they equally swift of wing, and traverse immense 

 tracts of country without much fatigue. 



It has been thought by some that a part of this 

 class lived upon an oily slime, found in the bot- 

 toms of ditches and of weedy pools ; they were 

 thence termed by Willoughby, Mud-suckers. But 

 later discoveries have shown, that in these places 

 they hunt for the caterpillars and worms of in- 

 sects. From hence, therefore, we may generally 

 assert, that all birds of this class live upon ani- 

 mals of one kind or another. The long-billed 

 birds suck up worms and insects from the bot- 

 tom ; those furnished with shorter bills pick up 

 such insects as lie nearer the surface of the mea- 

 dow, or among the sands on the sea-shore. 



