52 LOST AND VANISHING BIRDS 



adapted. It also captures small fish, frogs, and, it is 

 said, eats various vegetable substances. The Spoon- 

 bill probably pairs for life, and yearly returns to 

 the same haunts to breed. The nests in some 

 districts are placed upon the ground, in others 

 upon low bushes, in others again upon lofty trees. 

 Nests made in the branches are larger and more 

 elaborate than those placed upon the ground. 

 When in the latter situation it is often nothing 

 but a low heap of broken reeds ; when in trees and 

 bushes, often a large mass of sticks, a foot high and 

 a yard across, the cavity containing the eggs being 

 usually lined with dry grass. The old nests are 

 often repaired year by year, just as is the case 

 with Rooks. The eggs of the Spoonbill are four or 

 five in number, coarse in texture, white in ground 

 colour, sparingly spotted and blotched with reddish 

 brown, and still more sparsely with underlying 

 markings of grey. They are subject to much 

 variation in size. But one brood is reared in the 

 season. 



The Spoonbill has the general colour of the 

 plumage white, suffused or stained with yellow 

 on the neck and crest, the latter (a nuptial 

 ornament) formed of a bunch of narrow pointed 

 and drooping plumes. The spatulate bill is 



