. A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory: including their organization, habits, and relation; remarks on classification and nomenclature; an account of the principal organs of birds, and observations relative to practical ornithology .. . 09 The plumage is firm ; the wings short or moderate ; thetail very small. They iiihahit moist meadows, marshes, ami the sides oflakes and rivers. Some of them are strictly terrestrial; huthy far the greater number readily betake themselves to tlieAvater, and many habitually reside upon it. They run withgreat speed, and make their way witli wond
. A history of British birds, indigenous and migratory: including their organization, habits, and relation; remarks on classification and nomenclature; an account of the principal organs of birds, and observations relative to practical ornithology .. . 09 The plumage is firm ; the wings short or moderate ; thetail very small. They iiihahit moist meadows, marshes, ami the sides oflakes and rivers. Some of them are strictly terrestrial; huthy far the greater number readily betake themselves to tlieAvater, and many habitually reside upon it. They run withgreat speed, and make their way witli wonderful ease amongthe rank and dense herbage, where they conceal themselves,and from which they are with difficulty raised. Their flightis heavy, but rather quick, and usually not extended, so tluitthey seem unfitted for long migrations, which, however, someof them perform. They construct bulky nests, which areplaced on the ground, or raised amidst shallow Avater; andlay numerous spotted eggs. The young are covered withstiffish doAvn, and are active from the first. Seeds, insects,worms, and other small animals, form their food. They aremore numerous in warm climates, but one species or other ismet Avith everywhere, and a few occur in the FiQ. 41. They can scarcely be disposed into families, their mutualaffinity being so obvious that a separation of them into groupswould be merely arbitrary. The genera Aramus and Rallus,however, have the bill so elongated, and so difierent in formfrom the short, thick, strong bill of the other genera, thatthey seem to constitute a group apart. At all events, a 510 LATITORES. SKULKERS. division into the two families of Rallina? and Gallinulinaewould not be productive of the least confusion, or give rise toany misapprehension of importance. Of the first of thesegroups, however, we have only one species in Britain, and,as the propriety of a division is doubtful, I shall consider allthe birds of this order as forming a single family, of whic
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookidhistoryofbritishbi04mac, booksubjectbirds
