326 HISTORY OF 



merit than flight. At the latter end of autumn, 

 however, in the evening, its wonted indolence 

 appears to forsake it. It is then seen rising in a 

 spiral ascent till it is quite lost from the view, 

 making at the same time a singular noise veiy, 

 different from its former boomings. Thus the 

 same animal is often seen to assume different de- 

 sires ; and while the Latins have given the bit- 

 tern the name of the star-reaching bird (or the 

 stellaris), the Greeks, taking its character from 

 its more constant habits, have given it the title 

 of the oxvos, or the lazy. 



pis-r;-^hf^it.. 



:>i * 



. 



CHAPTER VII. 



OF THE SPOONBILL OR SHOVELER. 



As we proceed in our description of the crane 

 kind, birds of peculiar forms offer, not entirely 

 like the crane, and yet not so far different as to 

 rank more properly with any other class. Where 

 the long neck and stilt-like legs of the crane are 

 found, they make too striking a resemblance not 

 to admit such birds of the number ; and though 

 the bill, or even the toes, should entirely differ, 

 yet the outlines of the figure, and the natural 

 habits and dispositions being the same, these are 

 sufficient to mark their place in the general 

 group of nature. 



