THE SPOONBILL. 



551 



Crustacea that are to be found at low water, but its usual places of resoi-t are rivei's and inland 

 swamps. Its mode of angling is not unlike that of the kingfisher, as the Boat-bill perches 

 upon some branch that overhangs the water, and thence pounces upon the prey below. It is 

 not a large bird, the body being hardly bigger than that of a common duck, and the legs are 

 rather short in proportion to the size of the body. 



The adidt male bird has the top of the head decorated with a long and full plume of jetty 

 black feathers, pointed and drooping over the back. In the female the elongated feathers are 

 wanting. The tuft or plume of the neck and breast is grayish-white. The feathers of the 

 back are elongated, and their color is gray with occasionally a wash of rusty red ; there is also 

 a patch of the same hue, but of a deeper tone, upon the middle of the under surface. The tail 

 is white and the sides black. The bill is blackish-brow^l, and the legs nearly of the same 

 color, but not quite so dark. Specimens of this bird have been kept in captivity, and were 

 fed principally upon fish. 



t 





SPOONBILL. —I'latalea leucorodia. 



The well-known Spoonbill affords another instance of the endless variety of fonns 

 assumed by the same organ under different conditions ; both the beak and the windpipe being 

 modified in a very remarkable manner. 



The Spoonbill has a very wide range of country, being spread over the gi-eater part of 

 Europe and Asia, and inhabiting a portion of Africa. Like the bird to which it is closely 

 allied, this species is one of the waders, frequenting the waters, and obtaining a subsistence 

 from the fish, reptiles, and smaller aquatic inhabitants, which it captures in the broad, spoon- 



