KALLID;E. TANTALIDiE. 
179 
are armed with a short and formidable bony spur on 
the shoulder of the wings ; and the head is either 
partially naked, or furnished with fleshy W'attles. 
Several species occur in the hot latitudes of America, 
Africa, and Asia, but the genus is unknown in Europe. 
It is probable that the typical characters of the family 
are best seen in the genera Ralltix, Crux, Gallinula, and 
Fulica. The purple water-hens are most beautiful and 
majestic birds, in size nearly as large as a fowl ; they 
have a very thick and strong bill, the corneous front 
being continued over the fore part of the head like a 
helmet. There is a fine species found in the marshes 
of Sicily ; and another, almost exactly resembhng it, in 
the distant regions of Australia. The genus Podoa 
probably belongs to the next order. 
(202.) The Tantalidas, or ibises, are large and very 
singular birds, living almost entirely on the swampy 
banks of rivers and fresh waters, and rarely, if ever, 
frequenting open shores like the more typical waders. 
Their habits and structure seem compounded of those 
belonging to the herons on one side, and to the rails on 
the other : their flight and size remind us of the 
former, while their long toes and insectivorous nature 
are more in unison with the latter. They differ from all 
others of the waders in having metallic colours upon 
their plumage, by which we trace their analogy to the 
Tenuirostres ; and by their heads being frequently 
devoid of feathers, as in the Ampelidce, and other tenui- 
rostral types. The genera are few, but well defined and 
very remarkable; but there are so many marked in- 
tervals between them, that much difficulty exists in 
determining which are the aberrant forms. The majority 
live in tropical latitudes. 
(203.) Having now enumerated the chief groups in 
the five leading families of this order, let us endeavour 
to illustrate the families themselves, and see how far 
their analogical relations will sanction the order of pro- 
gression in w'hich we have here placed them. For this 
puqiose W’e had better place this series of the Oral- 
