310 



THE VERTEBRATE ANIMALS 



Other familiar examples are the turkeys, quails, partridge or ruffed grouse, 

 and the pheasants and prairie chickens. In this group the legs are strong 

 and stout, the body thickset, the bill and claws rather blunt. Birds of 

 this order do not fly far in a state of nature, preferring to live on or 

 near the ground. Such birds as the ruffed grouse, which nest on the 

 ground, are almost invariably protectively colored. Another interesting 

 example of protective resemblance in this group is seen in the ptarmigan. 

 This bird in the winter is white as the snow which surrounds it ; in the 



spring it molts, turning to a gray 

 and white, thus resembling the 

 lichens among which it feeds. 



III. Birds of Prey. These 

 birds are characterized by the 

 strong hooked beak, adapted to 

 tearing, and by the sharp claws, 

 which are curved and strong. 

 Members of this group that are 

 best known to us are the hawks, 

 the condor, with its great sweep 

 of ten feet from wing to wing, 

 and the eagle. 



IV. Waders. These are birds 

 with unusually long legs and long 

 necks, the latter character being 

 a natural correlation of greatest 

 service in food getting. Examples 

 are the mud hen or coot, the snipe, 

 crane, heron, and stork. The last 

 two are the giants of the group. 



The Swimmers and Divers. Birds placed in these orders have the 

 feet webbed ; the wings are often adapted for long and swift flight. In 

 this division are placed the gulls, terns, ducks, geese, loons, auks, and 

 puffins. 



Other Orders. Other orders of birds include the doves, the only 

 remaining native representative being the mourning dove; the wood- 

 peckers, strong and long of bill, the friend of the lumberman as a savior 

 of the trees from boring pests which live under the bark ; the swifts and 

 humming birds, the latter among the tiniest of all vertebrate animals ; and 

 the parrots, of which we have only one native form, the Carolina paroquet 

 (Conurus carolinensis) . This bird once had a range north as far as the 

 Great Lakes ; now it is found only in South America. 



Relationship of Birds and Reptiles. The birds afford an interesting 

 example of how the history of past ages of the earth has given a clew to 

 the structural relation which birds bear to other animals. Several years 

 ago, two fossil skeletons were found in Europe of a birdlike creature which 



Golden eagle (Aquila chrysastos). North 

 America and Europe. Copyright, 1901, 

 by N.Y. Zoological Society. 



