422 CLASS AVES. 



denied to the ostrich, and the cassowary ; and the peculiar 

 attribute, in the performance of this natural function, of 

 stretching their legs backwards, while the birds of other 

 orders have the habit of folding them under the belly. Con- 

 siderable variations also exist respecting the form of the bill 

 in these birds ; particularly, if with the most recent writers, 

 we include the secretary among them, but which our 

 author, as has been seen, has placed at the end of the 

 accipitres. The exclusion, however, of this bird, as well as 

 of the ostrich, the cassowary, the bustard, the agami, and the 

 cariama, would render the group of the grallae far more 

 natural. It would not, to be sure, embrace all the long- 

 legged birds, but it Avould embrace all that are habituated to 

 frequent the neighbourhood of waters. 



The birds of this order which build their nests in trees 

 and elevated situations, are monogamous, and nurse their 

 young ones until they are in a state to fly. Those which 

 nestle on the ground are, almost all of them, polygamous; and 

 their little ones, immediately after birth, proceed in search of 

 food of their own accord. 



The grallae, in general, are destitute of some of the most 

 agreeable attributes of terrestrial birds. " None of them,"" 

 says Buffbn, " possess the grace or gaiety of our birds of the 

 field. They do not amuse themselves, and sport together, 

 like them, either on the earth or in the air. They cannot 

 play in the branches like the tenants of the woods, nor please 

 the listening ear by the flexibility and melody of their voices. 

 On the contrary, their harsh and discordant tones, serve only 

 to betray their presence in the marshes, and on the shores, 

 that re-echo to their cries." 



The ostrich, the bustard, the agami, and the cariama, 

 always sojourn at a distance from waters. The last feed on 

 serpents ; the others on grain and herbage. All the other 

 grallae are wading birds. Most of them are semi-nocturnal, 



