Page 251 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

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separated from all the others by a wider interval. This ct, however, renders it more di cult to subdi­ vide them.
2. These subdivisions are groun ed, as in the mammalia, on the organs of od and of prehension, that is, the beak and toes. One is struck rst with the palmated feet, that is, when the toes are united by membranes, a character which distinguishes all the swimming-birds. The position of these et be­ hind ; the length of the sternum, or breast-bone; the neck o en longer than the legs, to reach down­ ward; the plumage close, shining, impermeable to water, agree with the et in constituting the web­ oted wls and swimmers.
3. In other birds, which also have equently some small webs to the feet, at least between the external toes, we observe legs denuded of athers towards the base, a tall stature, in a word, all arrangements necessary r rding in shallow water, r the pur­ pose of seeking their od. Such, indeed, is the regimen of the greater number of these; and al­ though some of them live on dry land, they are named waders, or g,rall .
4. mong the truly terrestrial birds, the gallin have, like our domestic poultry, a heavy carriage, a short ight, the beak moderate, with the upper man­ dible vaulted, the nostrils swelling out, and partly covered by a so scale, and almost always the edges of the toes indented, with short membranes between the bases of those before. They live principa y on gram.
5. The birds of prey have the beak crooked, with the point sharp, and bent towards the base; and the nostrils pierced in a membrane, which invests all
THIRD BOOK OF