WHITE SPOONBILL. 601 



naturalists on the banks of the rivers, and in the marshes 

 of the country between the Black and the Caspian Seas. 

 Colonel Sykes brought specimens from India, which, al- 

 though three or four inches longer, were otherwise identical 

 with the European bird. These specimens were obtained 

 in the Dukhun, one hundred miles from the sea, and at an 

 elevation of two thousand feet. Mr. Blyth says it is 

 common in India. 



These birds build in some countries on high trees ; in 

 default of trees, they make their nests among reeds or 

 rushes in the marshes, or near the lakes to which they 

 resort. The materials have been already noticed in the 

 floating nests seen by Messrs. Dickson and Ross. The 

 eggs are four, two inches five lines long, by one inch eight 

 lines broad, white, spotted with pale reddish brown. The 

 birds feed on small reptiles, small fishes, mollusca, aquatic 

 insects, shrimps, sand-hoppers, &c., many of which they 

 find when feeding at pools on the seashore. Their flesh is 

 dark in colour, but it is said to be of good flavour, and 

 without any fishy taste. They are quiet and inoffensive in 

 captivity, and, in common with the various species to which 

 they are allied, will feed on any sort of offal. 



In the adult male bird the beak is black, except the 

 rounded part near the point, where it is yellow ; the naked 

 skin under the tongue and on the throat is also yellow ; the 

 irides red ; the whole of the plumage pure white, except a 

 band of feathers at the bottom of the neck in front, which 

 is of a buff colour, and this tint extends upwards on each 

 side in a narrow stripe to the top ; the feathers of the 

 occiput are elongated, forming a conspicuous plume ; the 

 legs, toes, and claws black ; the toes connected by a con- 

 siderable expanse of membrane which is concave at the 

 margin between the toes. 



The whole length of the bird, from the point of the beak 



