WHITE SPOONBILL. 171 



has been seen in England. It has the whole of the upper 

 part black, with rich glosses of blue and green.* 



WHITE SPOONBILL (Platalea leucorodia). 



The white spoonbill arrives on the south-east of England 

 rather more frequently than most of the other stragglers which 

 have been enumerated in this section, though not so much so 

 as to render a detailed description of it necessary for the 

 popular student of our native biids. The birds live in 

 marshy places, and make their nests in trees, or in the close 

 tufts of aquatic plants. It is more a marsh bird than any 

 of the genera just mentioned, and it has the outer and middle 

 toes webbed to the second joint, and the hinder claw pro- 

 duced and resting on the ground for a considerable portion of 

 its length. The foot is thus well adapted for walking on the 

 surface of soft and sludgy mud. The form of the bill, which 

 is peculiar, and supplies the popular name, is alone sufficient 

 to characterize the bird. The bill has the tip yellow, but the 

 rest of it, and the legs, which are bare for fully four inches 

 above the articulations of the tarsi, are black. The body is 

 pure white, with a yellow gorget on the breast, and a crest 

 on the hinder part of the head, formed of sheathing feathers. 

 The bird feeds on the spawn and young of fishes and reptiles, 

 and on water insects and their larvae, as well as on the albu- 

 minous roots of some of the aquatic plants. In quest of these 

 it dabbles in the water and mud ; and, as is the case with 

 many others of the long-necked birds which dabble, it has a 

 double flexure of the windpipe, probably for holding a supply 

 of air when the head is submerged. Spoonbills occasionally 

 straggle to England, both on their northward and their south- 

 ward journeys. 



* The black stork is found in central and southern Europe, and in 

 western Asia. It tenants marshes, but breeds in forests, building on the 

 tops of the highest pines and other trees ; the nest is of large size, and 



