ii^O GRALLAtORES S -WADERS OR STiLtEiJ £itRDS. 



always anses between the true members of a group and its representa-^ 

 lives or analogues in other groups. It was thus that Gypogeranus, the 

 Struthionidae and Phoenicopterus have come to be ranked among 

 Grallatores, being really the representatives of this order each in ita 

 own group. It will occur to every one that it is not only among 

 birds that the Suctorial or lower nutritive type is marked by elonga- 

 tion of the body, and especially of the head, neck or snout. Where 

 this elongation existing in any considerable degree is joined with semi-^ 

 aquatic habits, the food being extracted from water or mud, no doubt 

 s-emains as to the genuineness of the grallatorial character. An oc-^ 

 casional but very remarkable characteristic of this particular tendency 

 in birds, is the pencilled tongue for sucking in the juices of flowers. 

 1 do not know of this occurring in any true Wader, but it is found in 

 several families representing the lower nutritive type, and as far as I 

 have observed in no other case. Thus the Raraphastidae probably 

 constitute the family representing this position among Scansores, and 

 have a feathered tongue. The same, or some similar anomalous de= 

 velopment of the tongue is found in the sub-family of Parrots, which 

 takes the same place in its own series, and it is again remarked in 

 Meliphagidae the family of Tenuirostrew which most specially exhibits 

 the suctorial character of the Order. 



It is difficult to explain the use of the bend of the bill in Recurvi^ 

 rostrinae, and fi-om the situation of that sub-family a question might be 

 i-aised, whether the peculiarity is grallatorial or natatorial, but it occura 

 again in two species of Humming birds belonging to the specially tenu* 

 rostral sub-family, and Swainson brings into comparison with Avocetta 

 the gliriform quadruped Nasua, the recurved snout of the latter ex-^ 

 hibiting an almost ludicrous resemblance to the former which is the 

 more important, because the Glires are the Tenuirostres of quadrupeds, 

 and the analogy suggested is in every way proved to be a real one. 



Another character apparently connected with the suctorial type, 

 but the connection of which with its other characteristics is quite in- 

 explicable, is the spur on the wing, this is found in several Charadridae 

 and Rallidae, and elsewhere always in Grallatorial representatives in 

 other orders and families ,with no exception that occurs to my recollec- 

 tion, excepting the form of Geese, called by some Zoologists Plectro- 

 phorinae. I had concluded from various reasons, that this is not a 

 true sub-family of the great and important family Anatidae. I believe 

 these sub-families to be, Fuligulinae, marine ducks ; Anatinae, fresh 



