GRALLATORES : WADERS OR STILTED BIRDS, 155 



as expressing habits and the frequent connection of its width and de- 

 pression with the natatorial type, it seems better to treat these genera 

 as a separate sub family, the fifth in the series, and the genus Platalea^ 

 the Spoonbills, which may give it a name, connects well with Ibis which 

 would thus stand near to it. 



The Herons are widely diiFused and several among them are familiar 

 to us as natives of our Country. They are though often large, lighter 

 birds with a longer and more flexible neck than the Storks, and re- 

 markable for the long loose plumes of their crest necks and wing^ 

 coverts, which, notwithstanding what may seem to us some dispro- 

 portion in the parts of the body make many of them remarkably beau- 

 tiful birds. The long slender toes with the hallux usually lengthened^ 

 and almost or entirely on the same plane with the other toes show the 

 arboreal habits which characterise most of the spe'iies, and which 

 justify the position in which I have placed them. Gray admits the 

 genera Europyga, Ardea, Tigrisoma, Botarurus and Scopas, besides 

 those which I refer to the subfamily Plataleinae. In Canada we have 

 four or perhaps even five species. The certain ones are Ardea Hero- 

 dias, A. exilis, Botaurus lentiginosus and Nycticorax naevius, if 

 Ardea virescens occurs within our borders it offers a fifth example. 



The next subfamily Gruinae, Cranes, consists of birds with shorter 

 and more arched beaks, the hallux only touching the ground, shorter 

 and stouter toes, with the nostrils, guarded behind by a membrane 

 placed near the middle, in a deep groove which is not produced to the 

 tips ; the tertiary feathers of the wings long and drooping, and in 

 some instances the birds having large crests, ear-tufts, or caruncles. 

 Their characteristics show them to represent the Rasores in this family. 

 There are three Genera, Grus, Anthropoides and Balearica easily dis- 

 tinguished by their beaks. I have here substituted Viellot's name for 

 the second genus, for Scops given by Moehring much earlier and 

 adopted by Gray, because that word being an ancient name for an owl 

 is sometimes applied to a genus of that family and is too near to Scopus 

 a genus of the preceding sub family. In such cases the law of priority 

 must be sacrificed in order to avoid confusion. We have at least one 

 Canadian species of Grus, G. Americana Linn. G. Canadensis is usually- 

 considered asa synonyme, but in a paper in this Journal (Vol IV. 266) 

 Mr. Cottle, of Woodstock, a very high authority on such a subject, 

 offers reasons for believing that there are really two species, and until 

 some further evidence is produced, the question must be considered as 



