354 



CHAPTER XV. 



Latirostral Flat-beaked. Boat-bill. Spoon-bill. Flamingo 

 Mode of Feeding Nests of Watchful Habits. Tenuiros- 

 tral, or Longirostral. Long, Slender-billed Birds. Avoset. 

 Sand-Pipers. Dotterel Preservation of its Young. Dunlin's 

 Nest and Eggs. Plover Mode of Catching. Ibis Mummies 

 ofWhy held Sacred. 



TABLE XXIV. (See p. 20.) 

 ORDER 5. WADERS. TRIBE 3. LATIROSTRES (Flat-beaked.) 



THE three genera of this Table have been included by 

 some naturalists amongst the cultirostral, or cutting- 

 beaked birds ; but the general form of their beaks ren- 

 ders them easily distinguishable under the term latiros- 

 tral, or flat-beaked. The Spoon-bills, indeed, alone 

 really deserve that title to the full extent ; for the beaks 

 of the Boat-bills and Flamingoes, though to a certain 

 degree wide and flattened, have also a considerable de- 

 gree of depth. 



The Cancroma, or Boat-bill, so called from the boat- 

 formed shape of its beak, resembles the Heron in almost 

 every other particular, and, 

 like that bird, will dart with 

 fury at the object of its 

 anger. It is found in the 

 hot and damp parts of 

 South America, frequenting 

 the banks of fresh-water 

 streams. 



Head of the Boat-till. The Spoon-bill cannot be 



mistaken, the round and flattened termination of its 

 beak at once pointing out the name. Sometimes, but 

 rarely, they are found in England. Near Holyhead, in 

 the island of Anglesey, a very fine specimen was shot 



