374 



GEALLATOEES, OE WADING BIEDS. 



hovering over the retiring water, alternately advancing and re- 

 treating with the waves. As their toes are united at the base by 

 a web or membrane, they enjoy the faculty of resting on the 



Fig. 146. Cariama (Palamedea cristata, Gmelin). 



water, although they do not actually swim. They utilise this 

 power in allowing themselves, every now and then, to be carried 

 on the waves to some distance from the shore. They fly well, and 

 can run with the greatest ease. Numerous flocks of them are found 

 on almost every sea-coast on the globe, making the neighbourhood 

 ring with their shrill cries. 



In the breeding season they pair off; the hen birds lay from 

 two to four eggs, either in holes carelessly scratched out on the 

 strand or in clefts of the rocks, or sometimes in marshy meadows 

 some distance from the shore. 



