296 



THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



Beak of the Boatbill. 



Beak of the Spoonbill. 



The boatbill owes his name to his very remarkable beak, 

 resembling a boat with its keel up- 

 wards ; the mandibles are very stout 

 and sharp-edged, and the upper one 

 has a projecting point at the ex- 

 tremity. This strangely-formed bill 

 is as serviceable to its possessor, 

 in seizing the fish upon which he 



pounces from his seat on the branches of trees by the side of 

 rivers, as is the long and flat beak of the spoonbill in fishing for 



small crustaceans and molluscs 

 along the edges of the water, or 

 in the mud left exposed by the 

 ebbing tide. 



The bill of the avoset, which 

 is about three times as long as the head, turns up like a hook 

 in an opposite direction to that of the 

 hawk or parrot, and is flat, thin, sharp, 

 and flexible like whalebone. An instru- 

 ment like this would of course have been 

 very unfit for cracking nuts, picking up 

 grain, or lacerating a larger prey, but 

 it answers admirably for scooping 

 smaller marine animals out of the sand 

 or from among the pebbles of the shore. 



The toucans and hornbills are remarkable for the enormous 

 size of their bill, which is sometimes equal to that of the body 

 itself, and might seem rather adapted to birds of ostrich-like 

 dimensions than to volatiles not much bigger than crows. Were 

 they of a strong and solid texture, these huge beaks would in- 

 fallibly weigh them to the ground ; but being of extremely light 

 and cellular structure the birds carry them easily, and leap 

 with such agility from bough to bough, that they do not then 

 appear preposterously large. 



Of all beaks, perhaps the most extraordinary is that of the 

 crossbill, in which the extremities of the mandibles curve towards 

 opposite sides, and cross each other at a considerable angle ; 

 a disposition which, at first sight, seems so opposed to the 

 natural intention of a bill, that even Buffon characterised it 

 as an error and defect of nature, and a useless deformity. 



Avoset (.ttecuivirostra 

 Avocetta). 



