By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 



169 



is a water bird, one of the waders and belonging to the family of 

 snipes ; its haunts are the sea-shore, and its food consists of worms 

 and aquatic insects which it procures from the soft mud and sand, 

 for which it often wades to a considerable depth; for obtaining 

 these it is furnished with a beak most appropriate though very 

 singular in form ; it is very long, very slender, thin, considerably 

 curved upwards, and especially towards the tip, very flexible and 

 pointed, and looks exactly like a thin piece of whalebone ; and its 

 mode of feeding is by scooping the soft oozy mud with the flat and 

 upturned beak : from this singular construction the avocet which 

 was once common on our shores, received the provincial names of 

 " Scooper !" and " Cobler's Awl Duck !" though now alas ! it is very 

 seldom met with at all. Bewick says that the places where it has 

 been feeding may be recognized by the semicircular marks left in 

 the mud or sand by their bills in scooping out the food. 



The Turnstone is another singular bird, of the same order as the 

 last, but very different in habits ; instead of the soft muddy sands 

 frequented by the Scolopacidac, these birds delight in the rocky and 

 gravelly shores of the ocean ; here they procure their food consist- 

 ing of marine insects, mollusc as and crustacae, by turning over the 

 stones with their beak, to get at the food lurking beneath them ; 

 from which practice they derive their name : perhaps it would be 

 impossible to conceive an instrument more beautifully adapted for 

 this purpose, being strong, very hard, quite straight, and drawn to 

 a fine point, and forming altogether a very powerful lever. 



Again, the Spoonbill as its name implies, presents a remark- 

 able formation of beak ; this is also a wader, and a member of the 

 family of herons ; its haunts are chiefly pools of water on the sea- 

 shore, and its food consists of small fishes, aquatic insects, sand 

 hoppers, &c. To obtain these, and when caught, to hold them fast, 

 the adult spoonbill is armed with a beak, very long, broad, and 

 thick at the base ; thin and very much flattened towards the extre- 

 mity, where it is rounded and shaped like a spoon or spatula. 

 As a farther means of enabling it to hold its slippery prey, the 

 inside of this weapon is studded with small, hard tubercles, and is 

 rough like a file. Bewick adds that the beak flaps together not 



