KEEL-BREASTED BIRDS. 251 
The Flamingo (Phenicopteride) (Fig. 287) is common 
in the warmer portions of America, also southern Europe. 
At the Bahamas the nests are of marl, columnar, from one 
to four feet high, partly in the water. The birds set with 
legs doubled under them, not hanging down. 
Order VI. Wading Birds (Grallatores). General 
Characteristics —The birds of this order are characterized 
Fic. 288.—A group of wading birds. 1, stilt; 2, avocet; 3, peewit; 4, 
dunlins ; 5, curlew sandpiper ; 6, sanderling ; 7, oyster-catcher ; 8, curlew ; 
g, turnstone. 3 
by long legs and neck, bill generally long, body com- 
pressed, the wings short and rounded. The rails are run- 
ners, and the cranes essentially wading birds and slow fliers. 
The Cranes (Gruide) are large birds, the head 
sometimes devoid of feathers, the legs long, the toes not 
webbed, the hinder one being highly elevated. 
The sand-hill crane (Grus Canadensis) is a common 
American form. They attain a length of four feet, and their 
