418 ARDEID^E. 



to human dwellings, the other is a solitary bird, shy and 

 wary, avoiding at all times the sight of men and their 

 habitations. It is a rare bird in most countries of Europe, 

 but is common in several parts of Asia and the whole of 

 the known regions of Africa. It builds a large nest in a 

 lofty tree, and lays from two to five eggs. 



THE SPOONBILL. 



PLATAL^A LEUCORODIA. 



General plumage white ; a large patch of reddish yellow on the breast ; a crest 

 of long narrow white feathers pendent over the neck ; lore, orbits, and naked 

 space on the neck, pale yellow ; bill black, tipped with yellow ; irides red ; feet 

 black. Young birds want the yellow patch on the breast and the occipital 

 crest ; portions of the wing black. Length thirty -one inches. Eggs white, 

 spotted with light red. 



THIS bird, with the figure of which most people have been 

 familiar from their childhood, has scarcely any longer a 

 claim to be considered British, though it does pay us an 

 occasional visit j when it invariably meets with such a re- 

 ception as effectually to prevent its return. Spoonbills do 

 not appear to have been common at any time ; for though 

 Sir Thomas Brown enumerates them among the birds of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, where they built in heronries, his 

 contemporary, Willughby, knew them only as natives of 

 Holland. 



The Spoonbill is a migratory bird, building its nest and 

 rearing its young in the north of Europe and Asia, and re- 

 tiring in autumn to the shores of the Mediterranean or to 

 Africa. It is remarkable not only for the singular con- 

 formation of its bill, but for " being one of the very few 

 which have been found to possess no true muscles of the 

 organ of voice ; and no modulation of a single tone appears 

 to be possessed by the bird." * 



It builds its nest in high trees, or, when these are 

 wanting, among reeds and rushes ; and lays four eggs. 

 * YarreU's " British Birds." 



