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OEDEE XII. 



WADING BIRDS, OR BIRDS WHICH SEEK THEIR FOOD CHIEFLY 

 IN THE SHALLOWS, OR ON THE MARGINS OF WATERS, OR 

 OTHERWISE IN HUMID PLACES ; AND WHICH NEVER OR 

 SELDOM FEED IN THE AIR ON THE WING, OR FISH ON 

 EXTENSIVE SURFACES OF WATER. 



THE birds which compose this order vary so much in their 

 forms, their habits, and their haunts, that their general cha- 

 racters are equally few and vague ; and though they do agree 

 in some particulars, it is by no means easy to express what 

 those particulars are. But if it be difficult to find general 

 characters descriptive of the order as distinguished from 

 other orders, it is just as difficult to find any one character 

 by the variations of which they can be satisfactorily divided 

 into groups. 



One means of subdivision has been the general structure 

 of the bill, as " coulter-shaped," or as " compressed ;" and 

 though neither of these terms is very descriptive of the form 

 of the organ, they are expressive of certain general characters 

 of the birds. Those that have the bill coulter-shaped, find 

 their food chiefly in the waters, and it consists, for the most 

 part, of fishes and reptiles. Of these there are only two 

 resident British species, the common heron and the bittern, 

 though individuals of about a dozen more species have been 

 met with in the country, as stragglers, however, rather than 



VOL. II. G 



