A HISTORY

OF BIRDS.

-000

PART V.

OF BIRDS OF THE CRANE KIND.

CHAPTER I.

OF BIRDS OF THE CRANE KIND IN GENERAL.

THE progressions in nature from one class of beings to another, are always by slow and almost imperceptible degrees. She has peopled the woods and the fields with a variety of the most beautiful birds; and, to leave no part of her extensive territories untenanted, she has stocked the waters with its feathered inhabitants also: she has taken the same care in providing for the wants of her animals in this element, as she has done with respect to those of the other: she has used as much precaution to render water fowl fit for swimming, as she did in forming land fowl for flight: she has defended their feathers with a natural oil, and united their toes by a webbed membrane; by which contrivances they have at once security and motion.

VOL. IV.A

But between the classes of

land birds that shun the water, and of water fowl that are made for swimming and living on it, she has formed a very numerous tribe of birds, that seem to partake of a middle nature; that, with divided toes, seemingly fitted to live upon land, are at the same time furnished with appetites that chiefly attach them to the waters. These can properly be called neither land birds nor water fowl, as they provide all their sustenance from watery places, and yet are unqualified to seek it in those depths where it is often found in greatest plenty.

This class of birds, of the crane kind, are to be distinguished from others rather by their appetites than their conformation. Yet even in this respect they seem to be sufficiently discriminated by nature: as they are to live among the waters, yet are incapable of swimming in them, most of them have long legs, fitted for wading in shallow waters, or long bills proper for groping in them.

Every bird of this kind habituated to marshy places, may be known, if not by the length of its legs, at least by the scaly surface of them. Those who have observed the legs of a snipe or a woodcock will easily perceive my meaning; and how different the surface of the skin that covers them is from that of the pigeon or the partridge. Most birds of this kind, also, are bare of feathers half way up the thigh; at least, in all of them, above the knee. Their long habits of wading in the waters, and having their legs continually in moisture, prevents the growth of feathers on those parts; so that there is a surprising difference between the leg of a crane, naked of feathers almost up to the body, and the falcon, booted almost to the very toes.

The bill also is very distinguishable in most of this class. It is, in general, longer than that of other birds, and in some finely fluted on every side; while

at the point it is possessed of extreme sensibility, and furnished with nerves for the better feeling their food at the bottom of marshes, where it cannot be seen. Some birds of this class are thus fitted with every convenience; they have long legs for wading, long necks for stooping, long bills for searching, and nervous points for feeling. Others are not so amply provided for; as some have long bills, but legs of no great length; and others have long necks, but very short legs. It is a rule which universally holds, that where the bird's legs are long, the neck is also long in proportion. It would indeed be an incurable defect in the bird's conformation, to be lifted upon stilts above its food, without being furnished with an instrument to reach it.

If we consider the natural power of this class, in a comparative view, they will seem rather inferior to those of every other tribe. Their nests are more simple than those of the sparrow; and their methods of obtaining food less ingenious than those of the falcon: the pie exceeds them in cunning; and though they have all the voraciousness of the poultry tribe, they want their fecundity. None of this kind, therefore, have been taken into man's society, or under his protection: they are neither caged like the nightingale, nor kept tame like the turkey, but lead a life of precarious liberty, in fens and marshes, at the edges of lakes, and along the sea-shore. They all live upon fish or insects, one or two only excepted: even those that are called Mud-suckers, such as the snipe and the woodcock, it is more than probable, grope the bottom of marshy places only for such insects as are deposited there by their kind, and live in a vermicular state in pools and plashes, till they take wing and become flying insects.

All this class, therefore, that are fed upon insects, their food being easily digestible, are good to be

eaten; while those who live entirely upon fish abounding in oil, acquire in their flesh the rancidity of their diet, and are in general unfit for our tables. To savages, indeed, and sailors on a long voyage, every thing that has life seems good to be eaten, and we often find them recommending those animals as dainties, which they themselves would spurn at after a course of good living. Nothing is more common in their journals than such accounts as these-" This day we shot a fox-pretty good eating; this day we shot a heron-pretty good eating; and this day we killed a turtle-which they rank with the heron and the fox as pretty good eating." Their accounts, therefore, of the flesh of these birds are not to be depended upon; and when they cry up the heron or the stork of other countries as luxurious food, we must always attend to the state of their appetites who give the character.

In treating of this class of birds, it will be best to observe the simplest method possible; neither to load the memory with numerous distinctions, nor yet confuse the imagination by a total want of arrangement. I will therefore describe some of the larger sorts separately, as, in a history of birds, each of these demands peculiar distinction. The Crane, the Stork, the Balearic Crane, the Heron, the Bittern, with some others, may require a separate history. Some particular tribes may next offer, that may very naturally be classed together; and as for all the smaller and least remarkable sorts, they may be grouped into one general description.