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ft A T 13 H A L IllSTOUV. 
nests in the water or near it ; the web-f'ooted fo wl deposit their 
eggs for the most part on the lofty cliffs, or inaccessible pro- 
montories. 
In this division of birds, the first which modern naturalists 
present to our consideration, is the Spoonbill,, a bird re- 
markable for the curious form of its bill, which in our Eu- 
ropean spoonbill is six inches and a half long. This species 
is the size of a heron, or about two feet eight inches long. 
Its body is more bulky in proportion to its height than most 
of the crane kind. Yet still it is a comparatively tall bird ; it 
feeds among waters; its toes are divided; and it seems to 
possess the natural dispositions of the crane. The common 
colour of those of Europe, is a dirty white; but those of 
America are of a beautiful rose colour, or a delightful crimson. 
Beauty of plumage seems indeed, to be the prerogative of all 
the birds of that Continent. The bill which runs out broad 
at the end, as its name justly serves to denote, is there about 
an inch and a half wide. This strangely fashioned instrument, 
in some is black; in others of a light grey; and in those of 
America, it is of a red colour, like the rest of the body. All 
round the upper chap there runs a kind of rim, with which it 
covers that beneath ; and for the rest, its cheeks and its 
throat are without feathers, and covered with a black skin. 
There is a dwarf spoonbill at Surinam, not above the size of 
a sparrow. 
The Heron. Of this genus Latham has enumerated not 
Jess than eighty-two species, all differing in their size, figure, 
and plumage; and with talents adapted to their place of re* 
sidence, or their peculiar pursuits. But how various soever 
the heron kind may be in their colours or their bills, they all 
seem possessed of the same manners, and have but one cha- 
racter of cowardice and rapacity, indolence, yet insatiable 
hunger. Other birds are found to grow fat by an abundant 
sdpply of food ; but these) though excessively destructive and 
voracious, are ever found to have lean and carrion bodies, as 
if not even plenty were sufficient for their support. 
The common heron is remarkably light in proportion to its 
bulk, scarce weighing three pounds and a half, yet it. ex- 
pands a breadth of wing which is five feet from tip to tip. Its 
bill is very long, being five inches from the point to the base ; 
its claws are long, sharp, and the middlemost toothed like a 
saw. Yet, thus armed as it appears for war, it is indolent 
and cowardly, and even flies at the approach of a sparrow- 
hawk. Of all birds, this commits the greatest devastation 
in fresh-watef ; and there is scarcely a fish, though ever so 
large, that he will not strike at and wound, though unable to 
