COMPARING BILLS. 105 



muscularity ; far surpassing, in these respects, any other water- 

 bird with which I am acquainted. To all these is added a vast 

 expansion of wing to enable the bird to sail with sufficient 

 celerity while dipping in the water." 



It is interesting to know that the young skimmers have the 

 mandibles very nearly equal in length. 



Fig. 33. Head of Roseate Spoonbill. 



Of spoonbill ed birds we have in this country the well-known 

 roseate spoonbill, or pink curlew, of the South, with his bald 

 head, and this rare little sandpii)er (Fig. 32), that a few times 

 has straggled over to our coasts from its Asiatic home. See 

 what a dainty poise it has upon the slippery ledge, confident 

 and alert, not at all awkward, — a true shore-bird, although its 

 blunt-ended bill is so unlike the delicate little probe of its 

 sandpiper cousins. It looks like an accident to find a bill 

 otherwise unknown except among the family of spoonbills, in a 

 group of birds that are noted for the length and true taper of 

 their bills ; yet undoubtedly the reason for this form would be 



