CHAPTEE XY. 



Latirostral, Flat-beaked. Boat-bill. Spoonbill. Flamingo. Mode of 

 Feeding. Nests of. Watchful Habits. Tenuirostral, or Longirostral, 

 Long, Slender-billed Birds. Avoset. Sandpipers. Dotterel. Pre- 

 servation of its Young. Dunlin's Nest and Eggs. Plover. Mode of 

 Catching. Ibis. Mummies of. Why held Sacred. 



TABLE XXIV. (See page 20.) 

 ORDER 5. WADERS. TRIBE 3. LATIROSTRES (Flat-leaked]. 



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 renders them easily dis- 

 tinguishable under the term latirostral, or flat-beaked. The 

 Spoonbills, indeed, alone really deserve that title to the fullest 

 extent ; for the beaks of the Boat-bills and Flamingoes, though 

 to a certain degree wide and flattened, have also a considerable 

 degree 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 ob- 

 ject of its anger. It is found in 

 the hot and damp parts of 

 South America, frequenting the 

 banks of fresh-water streams. 



The Spoonbill cannot be mis- 

 Head of the Boat-bill. taken, the round and flattened 

 termination of its beak at once pointing out the name. Some- 

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

 a very fine specimen was shot and preserved, in 1832. It was 

 first seen early in May, feeding at low water, in company with 



