48 A BOOK OF BIRDS 



edge a comb-like fringe, while the breast and thighs bear patches of 

 very remarkable feathers known as powder-down. These feathers 

 break up in the form of an exceedingly fine powder, but what pur- 

 pose this powder serves is unknown. 



THE STORKS, SPOONBILLS, AND IBISES 



Though very like the Herons in habits and general shape, the 

 Storks differ therefrom in many anatomical characters. The best- 

 known species is the White Stork (Plate IV. fig. 2) of Europe ; 

 and this largely because of the prominent part it has played in folk- 

 lore, as well as from the veneration in which it is commonly held, 

 especially in Holland. 



The Adjutant Storks, which occur in India and Africa, are the 

 birds which furnish the feathers known as *' Marabou " plumes. 

 The African Adjutant Stork (Plate IV. fig. 7) is known to the 

 Arabs as *' The Father of the Leather Bottle," from the curious bag 

 which hangs down in front of the neck, and which can be filled and 

 emptied of air at the will of the bird. The American Jabiru Stork 

 is nearly related to the Adjutants. 



The Spoonbill (Plate IV. fig. 3) is a bird which a few centuries 

 ago bred commonly in marshy districts in Great Britain, but is now, 

 largely owing to drainage, reduced to the rank of an accidental visitor, 

 and the same fate is overtaking it in Holland. This bird derives its 

 name from the curiously spoon-like shape of the beak. The Roseate 

 Spoonbill of America is a closely related species, but a more brightly 

 coloured bird. 



The Ibises, though they bear a superficial resemblance to the 

 birds known as Curlews, really belong to the Stork tribe, and are 

 most nearly related to the Spoonbills. The Sacred Ibis (Plate IV. 

 fig. 8) is the bird which was worshipped, and after death embalmed, 

 by the ancient Egyptians. The Glossy Ibis was, till comparatively 

 recent times, a common bird in Great Britain. Perhaps the most 

 beautiful of all the Ibises is the Scarlet Ibis of tropical America, a 

 bird which, however, soon loses its glorious hues in confinement, 

 though it has recently been found that, with judicious feeding, this 

 loss of colour can be almost, if not entirely, prevented. 



