ORDER GRALL^. .511 



to prevent such singular confusion. But there are some 

 philosophers whose peculiar aim seems to be to render diffi- 

 cult that which is easy, and to make obscurity more obscure. 

 The spoonbill has alternately been metamorphosed into a 

 heron, a pelican, and even a woodpecker. The faculty of 

 piercing trees has been attributed to it — whereas its bill, 

 flexible and flat, is adapted only to cut the water, or grope in 

 the mud. 



These birds, when under the influence of fear or anger, 

 produce a clattering with their mandibles similar to that 

 made by the storks. They live in societies, not very numerous, 

 in wooded marshes, not far from the mouths of rivers, and 

 they often sojourn along the shores of the sea, to be enabled 

 to seize the small fish and their spawn, fluviatile mollusca, 

 little reptiles, and aquatic animals, on which they live, and 

 which they bruise or retain by the assistance of tubercles, 

 which furnish the interior of the two mandibles, and serve 

 to break the shells or retain the slippery prey. They make 

 their nest, according to localities, on high trees, on bushes, or 

 among reeds. This nest is constructed with small wood, and 

 the female lays three or four whitish eggs. Their moulting 

 is but once a year ; but the young bird does not assume the 

 perfect livery of the adult until the third year. The tuft 

 does not appear until the second. 



The spoonbills are voyaging birds, not very wild, and show 

 no aversion to living in a state of captivity. They are found 

 in almost all the countries of the old world. In Europe 

 they are seen but seldom in the interior parts, and are only 

 passagery on some lakes or the banks of rivers. They fre- 

 quent the marshy coasts of Holland, of Brittany, and of 

 Picardy. They are also seen in Prussia, in Silesia, and in 

 Poland, and in summer they advance as far as West Bothnia 

 and Lapland. They are again to be found on the coasts of 

 Africa, in Egypt, and at the Cape of Good Hope, where 



