512 CLASS AVES. 



they are called Slangen-wreeter, that is, serpent-eaters. 

 Commerson has seen them at Madagascar, where the islanders 

 give them the name of Funguli-am-hava, which means spade- 

 bill. The negroes in some districts call them Vang-van, and 

 in others Vourou Doulou^ or birds of the devil. They have 

 been found in the island of Lugon by Sonnerat. 



The White Spoonbill {Platalea Leucorodia) is an occa- 

 sional, but rare visitor of this country. They rise very high, 

 and fly in waving lines. Their flesh is tolerably good eat- 

 ing, and is destitute of the oily taste which is peculiar to 

 most shore birds. 



The Roseate Spoonbill is an American species, and is 

 the Ajaja of Brazil (Marcgrave), and the Tlauhquecul 

 of Fernandez, and the Guirapita of the natives of Para- 

 guay. Its dimensions are not so great as those of the 

 spoonbill of the ancient continent. The plumage, in general, 

 is of a beautiful rose-colour, while the upper part of 

 the wing and the tail-coverts, are of a lively-red. Age, 

 however, operates the same changes of colour in these spoon- 

 bills, as in the red curlew, and in the flamingo, which in their 

 first years are almost completely white or grey. The bill 

 and its membrane are of a yelloAvish-green, which becomes 

 white when the bird is terrified. Azara has frequently met 

 these birds in the lagoons, up to the knees in water, busily 

 employed in catching small fish. 



This spoonbill, says Ulloa, in his Philosophical Memoirs 

 on America, employs in fishing a method sufficiently singular ; 

 it makes a semi-circle, with its bill, around it, on either side, 

 and employs it with so much dexterity, that no small fish can 

 escape. 



We now come to the family of the Longirostues ; the 

 first of which are the birds of the great genus Scolopax, 

 beginning with the subdivision of the Ibis. 



Why this subgenus should be separated from Tantalus, 



