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THE STORE \ 
like extremity of its beak. It is also fond of frequenting the sea-shore, where it finds a boun- 
tiful supply of food along the edge of the waves and in the little pools that are left by the 
retiring waters, where shrimps, crabs, sand-hoppers, and similar animals are crowded closely 
together as the water sinks through the sand. The bird also eats some vegetable substances, 
such as the roots of aquatic herbage, and when in confinement will feed upon almost any kind 
of animal or vegetable matter, providing it be soft and moist. The beak of an adult Spoonbill 
is about eight inches in length, very much flattened, and is channelled and grooved at the 
base. In some countries the beak is taken from the bird, scraped very thin, and polished, 
and is then used as a spoon, and is thought a valuable article, being sometimes set in silver. 
It has often been found in northern countries, but is now there very scarce, owing to the 
increasing drainage of marshy soil. The breeding-places of the Spoonbill are usually open 
trees, the banks of rivers, or in little islands and tufts of aquatic herbage. In the latter cases 
the nest is rather large, and is made of reeds piled loosely together, and set on a foundation 
of water- weeds heaped sufficiently high to keep the eggs from the wet. There is no lining to 
the nest. The eggs are generally four in number, and their color is grayish-white, spotted 
with rather pale rusty brown. 
The Spoonbill seems to have no power of modulating its voice, a peculiarity which is 
explained by the structure of the windpipe. Upon dissecting one of these birds, the windpipe 
is seen to be bent into a kind of 8-like shape, the coils not crossing, but just applied to each 
other, and held in their place by a thin membrane. At the junction of the windpipe with the 
bronchial tubes that communicate with the lungs, there is none of the bony structure nor the 
muscular development by which the modulations of the voice are effected, and which are found 
so strongly developed in the singing and talking birds. This curious formation does not exist 
in the very young bird, and only assumes its perfect form when the Spoonbill has arrived at 
full age. 
The color of the adult bird is pure white, with the slightest imaginable tinge of soft pink. 
At the junction of the neck with the breast there is a band of buffy yellow. The naked skin on 
the throat is yellow, the eyes are red, the legs and feet black, and the bill yellow at the 
expanded portion, and black for the remainder of its length. The total length of the male 
bird is about thirty-two inches, but the female is not quite so large, and her crest is smaller 
than that of the other sex. There are six or seven known species of these curious birds. 
Roseate Spoonbill (Ajaja rosed). This beautiful and singular bird inhabits from 
Georgia and the Gulf States to South America. It is also seen up the Mississippi occasionally. 
Mr. Wilson’s specimen came from Natchez. It measures two feet six inches in length, and 
nearly four feet in extent of wings. The bill is six inches and a half in length, and is flat 
horizontally, resembling the body of a violin. The delicate rose-colored and pink shadings of 
the plumage are very beautiful. 
THE STORKS, 
The Stobk is another of the birds which now seldom make their appearance in such 
inhospitable regions, where food is scarce and guns are many. 
It is sufficiently common in many parts of Europe, whither it migrates yearly from its 
winter quarters in Africa, makes its nest and rears its young. In most countries it is rigidly 
protected by common consent ; partly on account of the service which it renders in the destruc- 
tion of noisome reptiles and unpleasant offal, and partly because it is surrounded with a kind 
of halo of romantic traditions handed down from time immemorial to successive generations. 
The Stork is not slow in taking advantage of its position, and attaches itself to man and 
his habitations, building its huge nest on the top of his house, and walking about in his streets 
as familiarly as if it had made them. It especially parades about the fish-markets, where it 
finds no lack of subsistence in the offal ; and in Holland, where it is very common, it does 
s-ood service by destroying the frogs and other reptiles, which would be likely to become a 
Dublic nuisance unless kept down by the powerful aid of this bird. 
