MAN'S FEATHERED ALLIES. 



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They are skilful fishers. They wade deep into the water, where 

 their long necks enable them to seize their prey with ease. Their 

 food consists of spawn, insects, and molluscous animals. Owing to 

 their peculiar structure they are both waders and swimmers. 



Several of the African Grallatores wage a murderous war against 

 reptiles in the marshes and the meads ; a war which claims the grati- 

 tude of man, who could never defend himself against their prolific 

 increase and pertinacious attacks. I have already referred to the 



KOSE FLAMINGOES I Pluxnicopterus antiquorum). 



Stork ; it is needful I should also mention the Ibis, once an object 

 of worship on the banks of the Nile ; the Jacana, his long claws armed 

 with sharpened nails that transfix his prey; the formidable-billed 

 Baleniceps, which devours the young crocodiles ; and the famous 

 Serpent-Bird of the Cape, belonging to the Grallatores by his legs, 

 to the Raptores by the talons and crooked beak with which he is pro- 

 vided, as well as by the structure of his internal organs. These birds 

 are the allies and protectors of man, as Michelet has shown with 

 characteristic eloquence in his rhapsodical prose poem, "L'Oiseau;" yet 



21 



