Zöology; a textbook for colleges and universities . BIRDS 389 (/) Gruiformes. Cranes and their relatives, includ- Cranesing the rails and bustards. They have no truecrop. (m) Charadriiformes. Plovers, snipes, curlews, gulls, Plovers,terns, auks, and pigeons, - - a mixed assem-blage, declared by the anatomists to be moreor less related ! The marked differences be-tween the several families have to do with theadaptation of the birds to particular modes oflife - - by the sea, on the rocks, or in the forest- and to particular feeding habits. At thesame time it is remarkable how certain types,seemi
Zöology; a textbook for colleges and universities . BIRDS 389 (/) Gruiformes. Cranes and their relatives, includ- Cranesing the rails and bustards. They have no truecrop. (m) Charadriiformes. Plovers, snipes, curlews, gulls, Plovers,terns, auks, and pigeons, - - a mixed assem-blage, declared by the anatomists to be moreor less related ! The marked differences be-tween the several families have to do with theadaptation of the birds to particular modes oflife - - by the sea, on the rocks, or in the forest- and to particular feeding habits. At thesame time it is remarkable how certain types,seemingly fitted only for a particular kind ofexistence, can modify their habits to suit thecircumstances. Thus the curlew, with itsextremely long and slender curved bill, isbeautifully adapted for extracting mollusksor worms from deep mud or sand by the watersedge. In Labrador, however, Dr. Couesfound the birds feeding almost entirely on thecrowberry, the fruit of a hillside plant. Thegulls, which we r _^^^. •.•;- kv<. think of as ex-clusively ma-rine, abound inthe great basinbetween theRocky Moun-tains and theSierra Nevada, if|rand in the early days Of Utah From Animate Creation , . > FIG. 162. The rock dove (Columba livid), Saved the larm- the- spec;es from which the domesticated by devour- pigeons have been derived. 390 ZOOLOGY Cuckoosand parrots ing the hosts of grasshoppers. The pigeons,though typically arboreal, are by no meansuniversally so; indeed, the domestic birdis derived from the rock dove, which in-habits rocky situations on the coasts and inthe mountains of Europe. The passengerpigeon of America is now entirely extinct,though formerly it existed in countless myri-ads. The last one died at Cincinnati, Ohio,September I, 1914. The dodo of the Islandof Mauritius was a peculiar large pigeon, in-capable of flight. In its isolated home it faredwell until man arrived on the scene and ruth-lessly destroyed the helpless and clumsycreatures. By 1693 it appears that t
Size: 1830px × 1365px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1920
