. Birds that hunt and are hunted; . noise, like the painfuleffort to bring up a fish that has taken a wrong course down thebirds long throat, but which is only an attempt to sing or con-verse, that old and young alike are constantly making, keepsa heronry well advertised, much to the profit of the hawks. Standing motionless, with head drawn in between its shoul-ders, as it waits at the margin of a pond at evening for the foodto come within striking range, the heron can scarcely be distin-guished from a crooked stick. However deficient its sight maybe, especially by day, an extraordinary keenne
. Birds that hunt and are hunted; . noise, like the painfuleffort to bring up a fish that has taken a wrong course down thebirds long throat, but which is only an attempt to sing or con-verse, that old and young alike are constantly making, keepsa heronry well advertised, much to the profit of the hawks. Standing motionless, with head drawn in between its shoul-ders, as it waits at the margin of a pond at evening for the foodto come within striking range, the heron can scarcely be distin-guished from a crooked stick. However deficient its sight maybe, especially by day, an extraordinary keenness of ear detectsthe first creak of an intruders foot, and with a quawk, quawk,the bird rises and is off, trailing its legs behind, after the mannerof storks that Japanese artists have made so familiar. Have birds a color sense ? A night heron that was seenperching among the gray branches of a native beech tree musthave known how perfectly its coat blended with its surroundings,where it was all but invisible to the passers by. 168. MARSH BIRDS CranesRails GallinulesCoots 169 MARSH BIRDS (Order Palndicolx) Birds of the plains and marshes, the two families comprisingthis order have certain resemblances of structure that unite theminto a distinct order, however the large cranes, with their longnecks and legs, seem to approach more nearly the herons andtheir allies than they do the small rails, or marsh hens, and theircongeners. Cranes, rails, galiinules, and coots, unlike thealtricialheron tribe, are precocial; that is, they run at once from the nest,well clothed with down when hatched. These birds have fourtoes, the three front ones long, to enable the birds to run lightlyover the oozy ground; the hallux, or great toe, may be elevatedat the back, or, as in the case of galiinules and coots, on the levelwith the front ones, which in several species are lobate, but notflattened also, or palmate, as the grebes toes are. Five large,strong muscles give the thighs of birds of this order
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidbirdstha, booksubjectbirds
