150 GRALLATORES i WADERS OR STILTED BIRDS. 



series, placing the Waders in their proper relations, but he multiplied 

 orders unnecessarily from six to nine, and inserted the Passeres 

 (Insessores) next to Picae, which he retained in the Linnaean sense, 

 an arrangement totally inadmissible. The great Cuvier adopted the 

 six true orders, only leaving Insessores in the second instead of the 

 first place, and to him we owe the suborders of Insessores, excepting 

 that later writers generally, and I believe justly, reject his Syndactyli, 

 for which I have substituted Serratirostres, occupying the second 

 position. Since Cuvier's time the Waders have always retained their 

 position immediately before the Swimmers. They appear to represent 

 the suctorial or extractive form of nutrition, with a figure elongated 

 in the beak and limbs, and with the habit of frequenting chiefly 

 marshes and sea-shores. I shall next endeavour to determine the 

 proper limits of the Grallatores. 



From its striking external characters it is an order the true mem- 

 bers of which would pretty readily find their place, but these same 

 characters, attracting attention wherever they occur, might easily 

 cause families representing the Grallatorial tendency but really belong- 

 ing to other parts of the system to be hastily placed in this order, 

 and it is not without considerable care that we can keep it free from 

 6uch intrusions. I shall enumerate the principal instances in which 

 an error of this kind has been committed in order to illustrate the 

 principles upon which our judgment must be formed in such cases. 



The secretary bird (Gypo geranus) is a bird of prey, remarkable for 

 the length of its legs, and possessing in the spur on its wing another 

 character which may be accounted Grallatorial. It is probable that 

 this genus itself constitutes a family and represents the Grallatorial 

 tendency among Raptores, being thus next in affinity to the Vultures, 

 amongst which it has often been placed, and which constitute the 

 Rasorial family in the same order. It is not unnatural that when first 

 made known it should have been mistaken for a Wader, but with our 

 present knowledge of its structure and mode of life, there is no diffi- 

 culty in referring it to the order Raptores. Cuvier placed the Ostrich 

 and its allies, forming the family Struthionidae, amongst the Waders, 

 notwithstanding the important external and anatomical characters 

 which connect these birds with the Rasores ; and it appears as if 

 hesitation as to which characters should be deemed most important 

 had led others to the compromise of elevating the family to the rank 

 of a separate order placed between Rasores and Grallatores. I have 



