552 THE STORK. 



like extremity of its beak. It is also fond of frequenting the sea-shore, where it finds a boun- 

 tiful supply of food along the edge of the waves and in the little pools that are left by the 

 retiring waters, where shrimps, crabs, sand-hoppers, and similar animals are crowded closely 

 together as the water sinks through the sand. The bird also eats some vegetable substances, 

 such as the roots of aquatic herbage, and when in confinement will feed upon almost any kind 

 of animal or vegetable matter, providing it be soft and moist. The beak of an adult Spoonbill 

 is about eight inches in length, very much flattened, and is channelled and grooved at the 

 base. In some countries the beak is taken from the bird, scraped very thin, and polished, 

 and is then used as a spoon, and is thought a valuable article, being sometimes set in silver. 



It has often been found in northern countries, but is now there very scarce, owing to the 

 increasing drainage of marshy soil. The breeding-places of the Spoonbill are usually open 

 trees, the banks of rivers, or in little islands and tufts of aquatic herbage. In the latter cases 

 the nest is rather large, and is made of reeds piled loosely together, and set on a foundation 

 of water- weeds heaped sufficiently high to keep the eggs from the wet. There is no lining to 

 the nest. The eggs are generally four in number, and their color is grayish-white, spotted 

 with rather pale rusty brown. 



The Spoonbill seems to have no power of modulating its voice, a peculiarity which is 

 explained by the structure of the windpipe. Upon dissecting one of these birds, the windpipe 

 is seen to be bent into a kind of 8-like shape, the coils not crossing, but just, applied to each 

 other, and held in their place by a thin membrane. At the junction of the windpipe with the 

 bronchial tubes that communicate with the lungs, there is none of the bony structure nor the 

 muscular development by which the modulations of the voice are effected, and which are found 

 so strongly developed in the singing and talking birds. This curious formation does not exist 

 in the very young bird, and only assumes its perfect form when the Spoonbill has arrived at 

 full age. 



The color of the adult bird is pure white, with the slightest imaginable tinge of soft pink. 

 At the junction of the neck with the breast there is a band of buffy yellow. The naked skin on 

 the throat is yellow, the eyes are red, the legs and feet black, and the bill yellow at the 

 expanded portion, and black for the remainder of its length. The total length of the male 

 bird is about thirty-two inches, but the female is not quite so large, and her crest is smaller 

 than that of the other sex. There are six or seven known species of these curious birds. 



ROSEATE SPOONBILL (Ajaja rosea). This beautiful and singular bird inhabits from 

 Georgia and the Gulf States to South America. It is also seen up the Mississippi occasionally. 

 Mr. Wilson's specimen came from Natchez. It measures two feet six inches in length, and 

 nearly four feet in extent of wings. The bill is six inches and a half in length, and is flat 

 horizontally, resembling the body of a violin. The delicate rose-colored and pink shadings of 

 the plumage are very beautiful. 



THE STORKS. 



THE STORK is another of the birds which now seldom make their appearance in such 

 inhospitable regions, where food is scarce and guns are many. 



It is sufficiently common in many parts of Europe, whither it migrates yearly from its 

 winter quarters in Africa, makes its nest and rears its young. In most countries it is rigidly 

 protected by common consent ; partly on account of the service which it renders in the destruc- 

 tion of noisome reptiles and unpleasant offal, and partly because it is surrounded with a kind 

 of halo of romantic traditions handed down from time immemorial to successive generations. 



The Stork is not slow in taking advantage of its position, and attaches itself to man and 

 his habitations, building its huge nest on the top of his house, and walking about in his streets 

 as familiarly as if it had made them. It especially parades about the fish-markets, where it 

 finds no lack of subsistence in the offal ; and in Holland, where it is very common, it does 

 good service by destroying the frogs and other reptiles, which would be likely to become a 

 public nuisance unless kept down by the powerful aid of this bird. 



