BIRD. 



438 



seen by the following figure, has very little of the 

 Knife-shape, from which the group is named. 



Spoonbill. 



The cranes, storks, and several other genera, all of 

 which act the part of scavengers, and most of them 

 are migrant, have the most typical bills. Among 

 these are the adjutant of India, and the boatbill of 

 tropical America. The latter bill is a very singular 

 one. It resembles two boats applied the one to the 

 other, and while the greater length of the tomia is 

 trenchant, as in the storks, the tip of the upper man- 

 dible is hooked, with a tooth on each side, and that 

 of the lower is pointed. It is understood to feed 

 indiscriminately on fresh water Crustacea, on reptiles, 

 and on fishes. 



There are, however, so many forms of bills among 

 the birds of this very curious division, that no one 

 can be selected as typical of the others, and the whole 

 are by much too numerous to have a place in this 

 short, 'sketch. These diversities in the form of the 

 bill show that, how much soever the birds which are 

 arranged in this division may resemble each other in 

 their haunts, the nature of their food, or their habits, 

 the bill is not the part of their organisation after 

 which they should be classed, though, in proportion 

 as this part of their structure is less fitted for being 

 the character of the group, it is better for distinguish- 

 ing the genera. 



Hills of the Longiroslres. The bills of this group, 

 like those of the preceding one, do not admit of an 

 exact average definition, farther Chan that they are 

 all of considerable length, and generally less firm in 

 their texture than most of the bills that have been 

 noticed. But though they have no general form, 

 they have a sort of general character. The birds 

 which possess them are all feeders upon animal sub- 

 stances, which they seek upon the ground, generally 

 in humid places, and some of them in the water ; or 

 if any of them eat vegetable matter, it is only that 

 which is comparatively succulent, such as the bulbous 

 roots of aquatic plants, or seeds which have been 

 macerated in the water till they become soft. Many 

 of them are flexible, consisting of a cellular bony 

 substance, containing blood-vessels, and covered by 

 ntient membrane. They are a sort of inter- 

 mediate between the bills of the land birds and those 

 of ducks, and, as distinguished from the dabbling bills 

 of the last of these, they may be called groping bills. 



Some of them inhabit warm countries, and follow 

 the lines of those rivers which are subject to periodical 

 overflowing, picking up as their food the water reptiles, 

 and other small animals, which are either driven from 

 their retreats in the banks as the water rises, or left 

 stranded when it subsides. The most remarkable of 

 these are the genus Ibis, which have the bill very 

 long, and bent from the base. In them it is harder 

 than in most of the group, and not covered by a 



NAT. HIST. Vox.. I. 



sentient membrane, but the mandibles are weak and 

 flattened, so that, in arranging the birds according to 

 their bills, these cannot be included among the cul- 

 trirostres, though, in their general habits, and also in 

 the places which they most frequent, they resemble 

 these more than they do the average of the present 

 group. The more formidable prey, which they cannot 

 so easily master with the bill, they dash forcibly 

 against the ground, or stamp it to death with the foot. 



The majority of the group inhabit countries which 

 are not liable to be parched by the sun, or they 

 resort to such countries in the hot season ; for, though 

 many of them seek their food chiefly upon sandy or 

 gravelly surfaces, they all seek it near the waters ; 

 and in the winter season they either resort to the 

 shores of the sea, or migrate to climates nearer the 

 equator. 



Many of them seek their food by boring into the 

 ooze and sludge, and in proportion as they have this 

 habit more, their bills are longer, straighter, and more 

 soft, flexible, and sentient. They are chiefly night or 

 twilight feeders, because the ground animals of marshy 

 and humid places come abroad then, but retreat and 

 are still during the day. The time of their feeding 

 thus renders the sentient bill of more avail to tnem 

 than a hard one would be. During summer, when 

 food is plentiful, and vegetation rank on the marshy 

 grounds, one may traverse these the whole day with- 

 out seeing a bird, or even hearing a note or a rustle ; 

 but as night sets in, they make the wilds alive with 

 whistling and screaming. The bills of snipes and 

 woodcocks may be considered as typical of this por- 

 tion of the group. The avocets, which have the 

 most singular bills of the whole, are more of day 

 feeders than the rest. They feed by scooping in the 

 runs of water, not by boring. 



Sills of the Long-toed Birds. These are also 

 feeders on the margins of the waters, and the length 

 of their toes affords them a firm base on slippery 

 ground or upon tall herbage, among which chiefly 

 they seek their food. Those which are less aquatic 

 in their habits have the bill short, compressed, arched 

 on the upper mandible, and sharp at the tip, having 

 some resemblance to that of the gallinaceous birds ; 

 and those which are the most aquatic have it de- 

 pressed, and produced on the forehead in a horny 

 plate. Intermediate between these, there are others 

 which have the bill longer, more slender, and enlarged 

 toward the tip, as in the plover. The most striking 

 character of these birds is the length and narrowness 

 of their body, in consequence of which they can glide 

 through the herbage with great ease and rapidity. 

 The feathers of most of them are waterproof, aiid 

 though the toes are never united by membrane at 

 their bases, they are more or less margined for swim- 

 ming-. The bill of the coot is one of the most 

 aquatic ; and it bears some slight resemblance to tne 

 bills of the gulls. 



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