ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE STORK-LIKE BIRDS
THE STORKS (Family Ciconiidd)
The Storks, although very widely distributed and popularly quite well knowTn, are a small group comprising less than twenty forms. They have what may be called plump bodies, rather long legs and short necks, and large, compressed, conical, sharp-pointed bills which may be either nearly straight, somewhat curved or open in the middle.
The front toes are connected at the base by a web, but the middle claw is without the pectination found in the Herons, while the tarsus is covered with reticulated scales, and the leg bare well up to the thighs.
The wings are large, for they are powerful flying birds, and when on the wing the neck is held straight forward, another feature in which they differ from Herons. The short rounded tail is composed of ten feathers. They are, of course, without the powder-downs.
Among a number of anatomical characters we may mention that”the syrinx has no intrinsic muscles, and the Storks are consequently deprived of voice, and the only sound they produce is a loud clatter, by beating their huge mandibles together.”— Stejneger.
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