244 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 



Waders by means of the long and bare legged Ostriches, 

 which lead through the Cranes to the more strictly 

 typical birds of the Wading Order. The half amphi- 

 bious station of the latter, whose home is among the 

 fens and marshes, obviously connects the land birds 

 with those which are purely aquatic by affinities of 

 location, as completely as they are connected, through 

 the medium of the same order, by affinities of structure. 

 And lastly the Swimming Birds are united, by means 

 of some of the truly oceanic tribes which feed exclu- 

 sively upon the wing, with the Raptorial order, whose 

 typical station we have already found to be the air. 

 Thus the air, the trees, the land, the marshes, and the 

 water, are each peopled by their own peculiar Order ; 

 and the Raptorial, the Perching, the Gallinaceous, the 

 Wading, and the Swimming Birds, respectively occupy 

 a separate station on the surface of the globe. 



To return, however, from this digression. The bird 

 which we are now about to describe belongs to that 

 typical tribe or subdivision of the Insessorial order 

 which is characterized by the strength and conical 

 form of the bill, and the almost total want of denticu- 

 lation at its point. In this extensive tribe, the family 

 of Sturnidse, popularly known by means of the Com- 

 mon Starling (which may be regarded as its type), is 

 distinguished by its straight and more or less com- 

 pressed bill, the ridge of which passes back over the 

 forehead, while its opening is generally broken by an 

 angle near the base. All the groups which compose 

 the family are migratory in their habits, assemble in 

 large flocks, and live upon seeds or insects, laying 

 waste the cultivated fields in pursuit of the former, 

 and rendering essential service to the cattle by destroy- 

 ing such of the latter as infest their hides or fleeces. 



