119 



CHAPTER V. 



WATER BIRDS. WADERS. PRESSIROSTRAL NARROW-BEAKED. 



WATER-HENS ANECDOTES OF NESTS OF. COOTS NESTS 



OF. JACANAS SINGULAR FOOT OF. HORNED SCREAMERS. 

 RAILS. OYSTER CATCHERS TAMED. CULTRIRO3TRA CUT- 

 TING-BILLED. HERONS TOOTHED-CLAW OF VORACITY OF. 



STORKS AND CRANES MIGRATIONS OF RESPECT PAID TO. 



GIGANTIC CRANE PARTICULARS RESPECTING. JABIRU. 



ANASTOMUS OPEN-BEAKED. TANTALUS. 



TABLE XXII. (See vol. i., p. 20.) 



Order 5. WADERS. Tribe 1. PRESSIROSTRES, (Narrotv- 

 beaked. ) 



WE now come to a different class of birds from 

 those of which we have been hitherto treating, 

 though still with a connecting link between them, 

 so fine as scarcely to mark the point where the 

 one begins, or the other ends: a numerous and 

 widely-extended race, living and seeking their food 

 more or less amongst the waters. Some are fitted 

 for swimming, others are not: to make up for this 

 deficiency, the latter are furnished with long legs 

 for wading, or long bills for penetrating the mud, 

 usually, though not always, with both. 



The first of these to which we would allude, is 

 the Water-Hen (Gallinula chloropus). That pretty, 

 smart, active bird, which we may almost at any time 

 see, if we peep cautiously and silently through the 

 bushes of an old marsh-pit, in a meadow, or a pond 

 half choked up with rushes, or well-paved, if we may 

 so express ourselves, with the broad floating leaves of 



