WADING BIllDS. 
219 
it enters a cavity in the breast-bone, makes a turn and ter- 
minates in the lungs, after forming a large coil. 
To this group, or next to it, also belong the flamingoes, 
the American flamingo {Piicenicopterus ruber) occurring on 
the Florida and Gulf coast. Its feathers are scarlet, its bill 
yellow, large and thick, while the legs and neck are of great 
length. It connects the swimming with the wading birds. 
The foregoing group forms a division called the Natatores 
or swimming birds. 
Order 5. Grallatores (Wading birds).— These have long, 
naked legs, and therefore long necks, with usually remark- 
ably long bills. They are divided into cranes, rails, etc. 
(Aledorides), the herons and their allies {Herodiones), ancj 
the shore-birds, snipes and plovers, or LimicolcB, 
In the cranes, together with rails [Porsana CaroUjia, 
Fig. 258), the toes are often long, and in some forms, such 
as the coots and gallinules, which have lobate feet, there 
is an approach to the ducks. The coot {Fidica Americana) 
connects the swimming with the wading birds. The bill 
is much as in the gallinules, but the toes are lobate, having 
large semicircular membranous flaps; hence they can swim 
like the grebes. 
Fig. 259.— iVoforji/s. From Liitkeu's Zoology. 
