Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/274

Rh flight. The hind toe is always present, but its position and development vary in different genera.

The typical Herons have the above characters in greatest perfection: they are the most beautiful of all the Waders, not so much from the colours of their plumage, which however are chaste and agreeable, as from their taper and graceful forms, the curves of their slender necks, and the elegant hanging crests, and long decomposed plumes that adorn various parts of their bodies. Their plumage is copious, but somewhat lax, particularly on the neck. They build in society, but live solitary. Their common habit is to watch patiently, and without motion, on the margin of the water, or within the shallows; on the appearance of prey, it is transfixed by a sudden stroke of the pointed beak with lightning-like rapidity, and swallowed whole.

The Ardeadæ are to be found, in some of their varied forms, in all parts of the globe; the typical genera are numerous in species, and widely distributed. Some of their characters are thus graphically summed up by Willoughby: "These have very long necks; their bills also are long, strong, ending in a sharp point, to strike fish, and fetch them from under stones or brinks; long legs, to wade in rivers, and pools of water; very long toes, especially the hind toe, to stand more firmly in rivers; large crooked talons, and the middle serrate on the inside, to hold eels and other slippery fishes the faster, or because they sit on trees; lean and carrion bodies, because of their great fear and watchfulness."