410 THE LIFE OF A BIRD. 



two latter are represented in the diagram. The 

 birds which possess these bills are such as generally 

 seek their food on the ground in damp places, or in 

 water. The ibis in its splendid livery of red, a 

 colour which has on one occasion led to a flock of 

 these birds being mistaken for a regiment of soldiers, 

 hunts up the reeking banks of tropical rivers, pick- 

 ing up, amid the ooze and sludge left by a retiring 

 flood, the water-reptiles and other small animals on 

 which it feeds. The more formidable prey which 

 they cannot master with the bill, they dash with 

 great force against the ground, or stamp to death 

 with the foot- 

 Some bills which have sharp edges are so com- 

 pressed as to wear a resemblance to the blade 

 of a knife, and can therefore be only adapted to 

 seize small objects which are swallowed imme- 

 diately. The auks and puffins have beaks of 

 this form. The form of the bill in the bird called 

 the boat-bill is, as the name implies, very similar 

 to that of a boat keel upwards. This bill is conse- 

 quently extremely capacious, and forms an excel- 

 lent box for the safe conveyance of a fish or a 

 small reptile. The pelican is furnished with a 

 most singular bill also. The edges of this bill, 



