329 
CHAPTER XV. 
Latirostral — Flat-beaked . — Boat-bill. — Spoonbill. — Flamingo— 
Mode of Feeding — Nests of — Watchful Habits. — Tenuiros- 
tral, or Longirostral. — Long, Slender-billed Birds. — Avoset. — 
Sand-Pipers. — Dotterel — Preservation of its Young. — Dunlin’s 
Nest and Eggs — Plover — Mode of Catching. — Ibis — Mum- 
mies of — Why held Sacred. 
Table XXIV. (See page 20.) 
Order 5. Waders. — Tribe 3. Latirostres 
(j Flat-beaked). 
HPHE three genera of this Table have been included by 
some naturalists amongst the cultirostral, or cutting- 
beaked birds ; but the general form of their beaks renders 
them easily distinguishable under the term latirostral, or flat- 
beaked. The Spoon-bills, indeed, alone really deserve that 
title to the fullest extent ; for the beaks of the Boat-bills and 
Flamingoes, though to a certain degree wide and flattened, 
have also a considerable degree of depth. 
The Cancroma, or Boat-bill, so called from the boat- 
formed shape of its beak, resembles the Heron in almost 
every other particular, and, 
like that bird, will dart with 
fury at the object of its 
anger. It is found in the 
hot and damp parts of 
South America, frequenting 
the banks of fresh-water 
I streams. 
The Spoon-bill cannot be 
mistaken, the round and flattened termination of its beak at 
once pointing out the name. Sometimes, but rarely, they 
