Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/305

292 dusk approaches these sounds are gradually resumed, at first coming from the ground, as warnings that it is time to be alert; as the darkness and stillness of night sets in, one large flock after another hastens to its feeding-ground, and the various calls and the noise of wings is heard with a clearness which is sufficient to enable the sportsman to mark the kinds and trace his prey to their feeding-stations, to make him aware of their approach long before they come within his reach."

This Order comprises the following six Families,—Anatidæ, Colymbidæ, Alcadæ, Procellariadæ, Laridæ, and Pelecanidæ.

The beak in this great Family is thick, broad, high at the base, covered throughout almost its whole length with a soft skin, the tip alone being horny (the former supposed by some to be analogous to the cere, and the small nail-like tip to correspond to what in other birds would be the true horny beak); the edges are cut into a number of thin parallel ridges, or small teeth: the tongue is large and fleshy, with its edges toothed. The wings are in general moderately long. The males have, for the most part, the windpipe enlarged, near the point of its division, into a bony chamber, or capsule, differing in form and size; and some have this tube much prolonged, and bent back in winding folds within the swollen keel of the breast-bone: both of these peculiarities of