105* BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



principal feeding time is from near sunset until daylight. In 

 procuring its food the Spoonbill usually wades up to the 

 tibiB, immerses its bill in the soft mud, with the head, and even 

 the whole neck, beneath the surface, moving its partially opened 

 mandibles to and fro laterally, munching the small fry — insects 

 or shell-fish — before it swallows them. Where many are together, 

 one usually acts as a sentinel. He did not see it feeding in fresh 

 water, though he was told that it does so occasionally. 



"It can alight on a tree and walk on the large branches with 

 all the facility of a Heron." ( Water B-i/rds of North America, Vol. 

 I., pp. 105, 106. 



