OF THE SPOONBILL.

THE bill is broad, long, flat, and thin, the end widening into a roundish form not unlike a spoon; the nostrils small, and placed near the base; the tongue small and pointed, and the feet semi-palmated.

This genus consists of only three known species, and three varieties, and these are thinly dispersed over various parts of the globe. Their common residence is on the sea-shores, or the contiguous fenny swamps which are occasionally overflowed by the tide, or on such low marshy coasts as are constantly covered with stagnant pools of water.

These places they very seldom quit,

but they sometimes are seen by the sides of lakes or rivers in the interior parts of the country. They feed on various kinds of little fishes, and small shell-fish, which they swallow whole; also on worms, insects, frogs, and the various other inhabitants of the slimy pools, through which they wade, and search the mud with their curiously constructed bills; and sometimes they eat the weeds, grasses, and roots which grow in those boggy places.

THE SPOONBILL,

by OR, WHITE SPOONBILL

(Platalea leucorodia, Lin.-La Spatule, Buff.)

THE Spoonbill measures two feet eight inches in length, and is about the bulk of the Common Heron, but its legs and neck are shorter. The whole plumage is white, though some few have been noticed with the quills tipped with black.

The bill, which flaps together not unlike two pieces of leather, is the most striking feature in this bird: it is six inches and a half long, broad and thick at the base, and very flat towards the extremity, where, in shape, it is widened and rounded like the mouth of a mustard

spatula: it is rimmed on the edges with a black border, and terminated with a small downward-bent point or nib. The colour of the bill varies in different birds; in some, the little ridges which wave across the upper bill are spotted, in others stripped with black or brown, and generally the ground colour of both mandibles is in different shades of deeper or lighter yellow the insides, towards the gape of the mouth, near the edges, are studded with small hard tubercles or furrowed prominences, and are also rough near the extremities of the bill, which enables these birds to hold their slippery prey. A black bare skin extends from the bill round the eyes, the irides of which are grey; the skin which covers the gullet is also black and bare, and is capable of great distention. The feathers on the hinder part of the head are long and narrow, and form a sort of tuft or crest which falls behind. The toes are connected near their junction by webs, which reach the second joint of the outer toe and the first of the inner ones, and slightly border them on each side to their extremities: the feet, legs and bare part of the thighs are covered with a hard and scaly skin of a dirty black colour.

The White Spoonbill migrates northward in the summer, and returns to southern climes on the approach of winter, and is met with in all the intermediate low countries, between the Ferro Isles and the Cape of Good Hope. It is said that they were formerly numerous on the marshes of Sevenhuys, near Leyden in Holland. In England they are rare visitants: Pennant mentions that a flock of them migrated into the marshes near Yarmouth in April, 1774.

Like the Rooks and the Herons, they build their nests

on the tops of large trees, lay three or four eggs, the size of those of a Hen, of a white colour, sprinkled with pale red, and are very noisy during the breeding season. The intestines are described as being very long, and the trachea arteria is like that of the Crane, and makes a double inflection in the thorax.

OF THE CRANE.

THE characters by which this genus is distinguished, are a long, strong, straight, sharp-pointed bill, nostrils linear, tongue pointed, the toes connected by a membrane as far as the first joint, and the middle claw of some of the species pectinated. Their thighs are half naked, and their legs long, by which, without wetting their plumage, they are enabled to wade deep in the water, where they stand motionless, awaiting the approach of the unsuspecting finny tribes, and the moment these are within reach, they strike them with their bill, admirably formed for the purpose, with the rapidity of a dart. Their body is slender, and covered with a very thin skin; their wings, which are very large and strong, contain twenty-four quills; and their tails are short. They live mostly in lakes and fens, upon water animals; they also occasionally eat grain and herbage, and they build their nests chiefly upon the ground. Their flesh is savoury.

The Crane differs from the Stork and Heron in the singular conformation of the windpipe, which, "entering far into the breast bone, (which has a cavity to receive it) and being thrice reflected, goes out again at the same hole, and so turns down to the lungs."* It differs from them also in some other particulars, both internally and externally.