50 ' British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



The Spoonbill exercises a larger choice in the selection of its food than the 

 Heron. It varies its fish, Crustacea, and insects with a considerable quantity of 

 vegetable diet of marsh plants, which it has a Duck-like manner of eating. 



ORDER ODONTOGLOSS/E. 



IN this Order are included the members of a single family — the PJiKnicopterida, 

 or Flamingoes — remarkable for their long supple neck, and their tall stilt-like 

 limbs, of which latter the bones of the two middle segments — those immediately 

 above and below the so-called "knee" — are pretty nearly equal in length, the bone 

 of the former being only slightly longer than that of the latter. Of the four toes, 

 the first or hind one is either absent or very small, and is isolated, while the 

 other three are united by a web. If the bones of the skull be examined, it will 

 be found that the palate is "roofed in" as in the Ducks. In all the living forms 

 of the family, the shape of the beak is unique among birds ; it is bent downward, 

 and the part behind the nostrils forms a well marked angle with the part in front. 

 The bones of the lower jaw on each side project behind the place where it articu- 

 lates with the skull, into a recurved process, similar to what is seen in the skiill 

 of the Ducks and Geese. The Odontoglossce differ conspicuously from the Herodiones 

 in that their young instead of being born naked, sealed-eyed, and helpless, are 

 covered with down, and like the young of Ducks and Geese, are able to leave the 

 nest very soon after they have emerged from the ^^%. 



Some fossil forms, placed in the genus Palcelodus, which come from the 

 Miocene Strata of the Tertiary Epoch, have been ascribed to this family. They 

 differed, however, from the present day Flamingoes, in having a straight instead of 

 a bent bill. It is interesting to note, however, that the young Flamingo has a 

 straight bill for some time after it is hatched. The bent bill is acquired as the 

 chick grows. 



