The Caurale ([Fig. 145]), which forms a genus in the order we are now considering, is a bird about the size of the Partridge, with a large and fan-like tail. Its brilliant hues have obtained for it in Guinea the name of the Little Peacock, or Sun Bird. It is very wild in its nature.
Fig. 145.—Caurale (Figuier).
Pressirostres (Compressed Bills).
The birds which belong to the order Pressirostræ are characterised by a middling-sized bill—not, however, devoid of strength—and a back toe which is altogether rudimentary; indeed, in some species entirely wanting. They are mostly vermivorous; some, however, are granivorous or herbivorous. In this order a number of rather dissimilar birds have been reckoned, some of which belong decidedly to the Wader tribe, whilst others, by their general habits, are more allied to the Gallinaceæ. Among them are the Cariama ([Fig. 146]), the Oyster-catcher, the Yellow-leg, the Stone Plover, the Lapwing, the Plover, and the Bustard.
The Oyster-catchers (Hæmatopus) are characterised by a long, pointed, and powerful bill, which they use like a pair of pincers for opening oysters, mussels, and other shell-fish left on the shore by the receding tide, with the sole purpose of devouring their contents. Few things are more interesting than to see them hovering over the retiring water, alternately advancing and retreating with the waves. As their toes are united at the base by a web or membrane, they enjoy the faculty of resting on the water, although they do not actually swim. They utilise this power in allowing themselves, every now and then, to be carried on the waves to some distance from the shore. They fly well, and can run with the greatest ease. Numerous flocks of them are found on almost every sea-coast on the globe, making the neighbourhood ring with their shrill cries.
Fig. 146.—Cariama (Palamedea cristata, Gmelin).
In the breeding season they pair off; the hen birds lay from two to four eggs, either in holes carelessly scratched out on the strand or in clefts of the rocks, or sometimes in marshy meadows some distance from the shore.
They assemble in considerable flocks for the purpose of migration—if this term may be held applicable to the short journeys which they annually undertake. They ought rather to be called pleasant little jaunts—inspections, as it were, of their domains; something like the circuit of his department made by a prefect, or the progress of a sovereign through his country.