Song Birds and Water Fowl 



in large colonies, but nests on the ground. 

 Storks are among the largest of all our birds, 

 standing nearly four feet high. 



One of the noblest figures in the group is the 

 whooping crane, fully as high as the stork, and 

 almost entirely white, but one of the wariest of 

 all species, and extremely difficult of approach. 

 This, too, is a Southern bird, and is seldom 

 seen in the Northern States. The heron family 

 alone spreads over the northern part of the 

 country, and without much difficulty the night 

 heron, the great blue — occasionally the little 

 blue — and the green herons may be found 

 either in migration or in their summer homes. 



Coming one step nearer the water we find 

 the 



Shore Group. — This is an exceedingly in- 

 teresting division, the largest of all the groups, 

 numbering about seventy species, and very 

 accurately described as to habitat by the name 

 of shore group, since they all live, with very 

 few exceptions, near the water's edge, find their 

 food on the shore, or by wading in shallows, 

 and include only a very few species that are 

 swimming birds. As a class they are character- 

 ized by long bills and long legs, the former for 

 probing the ground for food, the latter for 



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