CHAPTER XXXIII. 

 HERODIONES. 



Herons and Storks — ^Altricial Birds. 



This is the order of the herons, the storks, the ibises, 

 and the bitterns. Many of them are birds of large size, 

 among the tallest of birds that have a keeled breast-bone. 

 The neck is in most of the birds bent in U-shape. A part, 

 sometimes all, of the head may be naked, and in some 

 of the species a part of the neck is bare also. The toes 

 of the birds are, for the most part, long and slender and 

 are never fully webbed. The bill is long and slender in 

 comparison with the rest of the body, and is wedge-shaped 

 with cutting edges. It is always longer than the head. 

 The tail of the birds of the order has twelve rectrices. 



The Herodiones are all of them more or less depend- 

 ent upon water courses for food, shelter, and nesting needs ; 

 hence they are to be found along the inland lakes and 

 rivers. Most of the birds are shy, fearful of man, and so 

 seek those water courses that are heavily fringed with 

 trees and undergrowth, whose turns and secluded wind- 

 ings furnish the degree of retirement that renders them 

 comfortable. 



The young are hatched naked and helpless, and are 

 fed and cared for in the nest. The food of the adults 

 consists of fish, reptiles, or other soft, small animals, as 

 snails and aquatic worms, which the bird spears as it 

 stands in wait, or as it stalks stealthily along through the 

 grasses and reeds of swamp or wooded water course. 



331 



