ORDER GRALL^. 535 



posture. The young quit the nest soon after their birth, to 

 seek their food alone. 



Though the himantopus is rather rare,it is yet found in vari- 

 ous parts of the world. Marsigli has seen some of these birds on 

 the Danube, and Sibbald in Scotland. They are sometimes to 

 be found on the coasts of England and France, They are 

 more common in the neighbourhood of the Tanais and the 

 Caspian Sea. This bird also inhabits Barbary, and is a bird 

 of passage in Egypt. It is known in China and India, under 

 the name of Craboli. Some authors pretend that there are 

 three species in America, namely, — that of Mexico, which 

 Fernandez has described under the name of Comaltecatl ; 

 another in Guiana, and one in Paraguay. But these rather 

 appear to be varieties, referable to age, to sex, or climate, 

 than distinct species. 



The AvosETS, which, with the exception of the mem- 

 branes with which their feet are furnished, seem, by their 

 general form and organization, to belong rather to the 

 grallae than the palmipedes, exhibit many traits of resemblance 

 with the flamingos. They are, however, distinguished from 

 all other birds by the strong curvature of the bill upwards. 

 This curvature, indeed, exists to a certain extent in one spe- 

 cies of Limosa, and the bill of the Jabiru, much stronger, has 

 also the point higher than the base. But in neither is it 

 nearly so remarkable as in the avoset. This construction, 

 supposed to be so little favourable to the prehension of 

 aliment, has given rise to doubts respecting the manner in 

 which this instrument was employed by the animal, and 

 respecting the substances from which it derived its food. As 

 the avoset is very wild, there was no opportunity of ob- 

 serving it very closely, and dissection, though, after all, but 

 a vasue criterion, as the aliments were found in the stomach 

 in a half digested state, afforded the only means of throwing 

 light on this subject. But the matter, fat and glutinous 



