14 THE HOME-LIFE OF 



prodding him in the neighbourhood of his ruddy patch. 

 The young now, as often, seemed to be in the last 

 state of exhaustion (Plate 9), and lay prostrate and 

 panting in the fierce sun ; nor was it surprising, for to 

 my knowledge they had had no food during nine hours. 



Old birds were often to be seen flying about with long 

 reeds trailing from their bills, and though some might be 

 forming late second nests, others were certainly adding to 

 those already containing eggs or young. The object 

 of this was not apparent, but my pair were often similarly 

 engaged, taking reeds from a disused nest near by. 



I happened to notice as one carried a reed in its bill, 

 that though the mandibles were about a quarter of an inch 

 apart in the middle, where they were gripping the stem, 

 at the spatulate end they were closed ! But since this 

 was double the distance from the point of turning, the 

 space between the spatules should have been half 

 an inch. It meant that either the mandibles must 

 be jointed at some point at or beyond the middle, and 

 have muscles attaching thereto, or else that they must be 

 curved or bowed, meeting only at their extremities. 

 This latter alternative, unlikely though it seemed, 

 proved to be the right one. The birds seldom turned 

 sideways towards me, preferring to keep the " thing " 

 straight in front of them, but occasionally they did so, 

 and I was then able distinctly to see between the man- 

 dibles the stems of the reeds beyond, although the 

 spatulate tips were closed. Since our return a number of 

 stuffed Spoonbills have been examined, but there has 

 been no indication of this curvature and lack of meeting 

 of the mandibles. Nor is it surprising, for a taxidermist, 

 on finding that the bills were slightly bowed, would 

 naturally put this down to shrinkage after death, and 

 use his skill to make them " right " again. 



When the cock returned, I could see by the bulkiness 

 of his neck about the ruddy band that he had not come 

 empty. For a while he hardly noticed the exhortations 



