)RE BIRDS. 



22 1 



The herons an I by the singular s] Q-bilis, repre- 



sented by the roseate spoon-bill (Plata and which, 



with the w 1 [bis and other spei nip, adorn 



the swamps and baj South Atlantic and Gulf 



The shore-birds, or the curlews i \ nius longirostris, 



261 ). plover, Bandpipes, pi 11'//- 



sonii, Fig. 262), n k. and still (Himantopus nigricol- 



Fig. 263), are long-l a >illed birds, going 



flocks by the seashore or river-banks, sometimes living in- 

 land on low plains; they are not, gi speaking, i - 



i ■ irlew. 



i.ipo. 



builders, the eggs being laid in rude i hollows in t he 



ground. They feed on worms, insects, and snail-, either 

 picking them np from the surface or boring for them in 

 the mud or sand, or forcing the vermian food on! of then- 

 boles by stamping on the ground. The Amer snipe 

 {Oallinago Wilsonii, Fig as the bill much 1 than 

 the bead, perfectly straight, sofl to the end, where it is 

 somewhat widened ami grooved on tup: it is 9-11 in. 

 long; it lives in open, wel places, and • ry. In the 

 A-., rican woodcock (/'/,// inor) the bill is much 

 er than the head, stout and deep at base, grooved neatly 



