| OCR Text |
Show 378 AVE£. The adult NIGHT-HERON, with the port of the Bitterns, and a beak proportionably thicker, has a few slender feathers on the occiput. There is but one species found in France, .flrd. nycticorax, L.; Bilwreau d'Europe,(l) Enl. 758; Frisch, 203; Naum, Ed. I, 26, f. 35. (The Night Heron.) The male is white; back and calotte black; the young bird, ".f.nl. 759, grey with a brown mantle and a blackish calotte. (2) We must observe, however, that these various subdivisions of the Herons are of but little importance, and are by no means well marked. The third tribe, besides having a thicker and smoother beak than is found in the second, has tolerably strong and almost equal membranes between the base of the toes. CICoNIA, Cuv. The Storks have a thick beak, moderately cleft; no fossre or grooves; the nostrils pierced towards the back and near the base; an extremely short tongue. Their legs are reticulated, and the anterior .toes strongly palma ted at base, particularly the external ones. The hght and broad mandibles of their beak, 'by striking against each other, produce a clash which is almost the only sound that procee~s from these birds. Their gizzard is but slightly muscular, and the1r creca so small that they are scarcely perceptible. Their lower larynx has no peculiar muscle; their bronchice are longer than common, aud composed of more than the usual number of rings. There are two species in France, f .!Jrdea ciconia, L.; Enl. 886; Frisch, 196; Naum. Ed. I, 22, · 31. (The White Stork.) White; quills of the wings black; feet and beak red. A large bird, held in great veneration by the People, a distinction arising from the fact that it destroys snakes and other noxious reptiles. It prefers bu1' ld'm g 1't 5 nest on towers, in steeples, &c.; and after having once constructed undulata, Gm. Enl. 768;-.8. pltilippensis, Gm. Enl. 9~~· [Add, als?, .B.. vio:. Wils. VIII, pl. lxv, f. 1;-..8. clP:l'Ulea, Wils. VII, pl. lxu, f. 3;-A. vtrescena, VII, lxi, f. 1 ;-.8. exilis, Wils. VIII, pl. lxv, f. 4. Am. Ed.] Jrd ( 1) According to :Meyer, the results of whose labours we still follow, the ~ grisea, A. maculata, and the .8. badia of Gmel. are different states of the JJ. nyd corax. . Lath.;( 2) Add A.pileata, Lath., or .a. alba, ~; Gm., Enl. 907;-.11. caledont~, ... .;, .a ..c ayennensis, Enl. 899, or violacea, Wils. VIII, lxv, 1, of wh l'C h .B. • 1amaG'c e"dt·~~d•, Gm. is the young;-.1.1. sibilat1·ix, T. Col. 271.-The Pouacre, Buff. (.flrd. ar'tha Gm.) Enl. 309, appears to be the young of an ash coloured Nigbtl~cron, ;~ bronze-black calotte and back. It is the same as the .11. maculata, r •Jsch, 2 · GRALLATORilE. 379 it, ret~rns to the same spot in the spring, passing the winter in Africa. .B.rd. nigra, L.; Enl. 399; and the young, Frisch, 197; Naum . 23, f. 32. (The Black Stork.) Blackish, with purple reflections; belly, white. Haunts solitary marshes, and builds in forests.( 1) Among various species we may distinguish, The Bare-necked Storks, Which have a thicker beak than the others, but one composed of a light substance; and among them The Pouched Storks, .llrd. dubia, Gm.-.llrd. algala, Lat. Which have an appendage under the middle of the throat, resembling a thick sausage, and from under whose wings are procured the feathers forming those light plumes called by the French, Marabous. They are the largest birds of the gehus; their belly is white, and their mantle a bronze-black. There are two species, Cic. marabou, Tern., Col. 300, from Senegal, with a uniform mantle, and Cic. argala, Tern., Col. 301, from India, whose wing-coverts are edged with white. By means of their broad bill, they are enabled to capture birds on the wing.(2) M YCTERIA, Lin. The Jabirus, separated from Ardea by Linnreus, aredosely allied to the Storks, and much more so than the latter are to the true Herons; the moderate opening of their beak, the nostrils, the reticulated envelope of the tarsi, and the extent of the membranes between the toes are the same as in the Storks; their mode of life is also similar. Their peculiar character consists in a beak slightly curved upwards near the extremity. Myct. americana, L. ;(3) Enl. 817 (The American Jabiru), .(~) To this genus also belongs 1;he Maguari, or American Stork, (.8. maguari) Vt~Jl!. G~er. 254; and Spix, LXXXIX, under the wrong name of Oiconia jubura, whtch, Wlth the exception of its ash coloured beak, differs but little from our White Stork;-the little C. noire de Nubie ( Cic. Abdimii, Lichtenst.) Uuppel. 8;thc C. violette (C. leucocephala, Gm.) Enl. 906. (2) Add the Cigogne chevelue (C. capillaia, T. ), Col. 312. (3) Touyouyou in Cayenne; Ai'ai'ai in Paraguay, Collier rouge, &c. Barrere has/ confounded:it with the American Ostrich, which has caused the name of Touyouy~ ,or 1buyou, to be transferred to that bird by Brisson and by Buffon. f~ycteria, a name derived by Linn<eus from p.vx.'THp, nose, proboscis, on ~~ount 0 1ts large beak. / / |
