SPOONBILL , — Platalea leucorodia. 
The curious Spoonbill has a very wide range of country, being spread over 
the greater part of Europe and Asia, and inhabiting a portion of Africa. Like 
the birds to which it is closely allied, this species is one of the waders, frequenting 
the waters, and obtaining a subsistence from the fish, reptiles, and smaller aquatic 
inhabitants, which it captures in the broad spoon-like extremity of its beak. It 
is also fond of frequenting the sea-shore, where it finds a bountiful supply of food 
along the edges 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. Th£ bird also eats some 
vegetable substances, such as the roots of aquatic herbage, and when in confine- 
ment will feed upon almost any kind of animal or vegetable matter, providing it 
be soft and moist. 
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