WHITE SPOONBILL. 503 



to the end of the tail, about thirty-two inches ; of which, the 

 beak in an old male will measure near nine inches ; from the 

 carpal joint to the end of the wing fourteen inches and a 

 half; the first quill feather not quite so long as the fourth ; 

 the second and third equal in length, rather longer than the 

 fourth, and the longest in the wing. 



The females are not so large at the same age as males, 

 and have a smaller occipital crest ; but they are not other- 

 wise dissimilar in plumage. 



In young birds the beak is not so large, it is softer in its 

 texture, more flexible and of a lighter colour; the naked 

 parts about the head paler ; the irides ash colour ; the shafts 

 and the ends of the quill feathers are black, and there is no 

 indication of the elongated occipital feathers, which at mature 

 age are borne by both sexes. 



The Spoonbill possesses a peculiarity of internal structure 

 much too interesting to be passed over. This bird is one of 

 the very few which has been found to possess no true muscles 

 of the organ of voice, and no modulation of a single tone ap- 

 pears to be possessed by the bird. The figure inserted on 

 the next page is a representation of part of the inside of this 

 bird, with the figure of 8 like convolutions of its singular 

 windpipe in the natural situation in front of the lungs ; the in- 

 sertion of the bronchiae into the lobe of the lungs on each side 

 is shown, but if compared with the representations of the or- 

 gans of voice in birds at pages 72, 74 and 76 of the present 

 volume, it will be seen that no particular ossification at the 

 junction of the bronchiee with the bottom of the tube of the 

 trachea exists, nor any muscles by which variations in the 

 length of the trachea or the bronchise can be effected. In 

 a young Spoonbill taken from the nest, and examined by 

 Willughby in reference to this particular structure, which is 

 said to have been first noticed by Aldrovandus, this pecu- 

 liarity was not found, and I have been told of another in- 



