4i B The Hiflory of ANIMAL 8* 
live in them; it is ufually feen wading up to the mid-leg, and the ufe of it’s length of 
neck is evident on thefe occafions, as it takes up any thing withveafe from the bot¬ 
tom, at thefe depths. The writers of all times have been acquainted with it, and we 
have an account from Pliny, that it’s tongue was efteemed by Apitius as one of the 
grealeft of all delicacies at table; they have all called it, as we do, Phoe'nicopterus. 
ANAS. 
"TT^HE beak of the Anas is convex; the point or extremity of it is pbtufe, and 
JL tile whole verge is furnifhed with tranfverfe, lamellofe teeth : the tongue is ob- 
tufe and ciliated. 
i 
Anas rojlro piano apice dilatato rotundoque . 
The Anasy with a flat beak , broad and round - ^pOOfl-MIL 
ed at the end\ 
This fpecies is fo extreamly different from the generality of the Anas kind in it’s 
general figure, that it has been ufually accounted one of the ftorks; fome have made it 
a fpecies of pelican, and others of heron; but the figure and ftindture of the beak, 
which is, though referable in every particular to this clafs, yet one of the mod lingu¬ 
lar in the world, brings it evidently to this family, as do alfo it’s other character inic 
parts, though it's general form be different. 
It is of the fhape of our common heron, and is about the fame fize : the neck is 
very long, and the legs are alfo proportionabiy long : the head is large, rounded, and 
very convex on the front: the eyes are fmall; the beak is very large, and of the moil 
lingular ftrudture imaginable : it is very long and fiat; it is broad throughout it’s whole 
length, but, contrary to the cuftom of nature in other birds, which have it broadeff 
at the bafe, and fmalleft at the point, this is larged: there; it is fiat, and of the fame 
breadth all the way till near the extremity, where it expands into a round figure, and 
forms fomewhat of the refemblance of the bowl of a fpoon, the reft ferving in man¬ 
ner of a handle ; it has from this obtained the name of the fpoon-bill: the beak is 
white, when the bird is young ; but, when it is full grown, it becomes of a dufky olive, 
approaching to black : there are twelve or fourteen furrows on the broad part; the reft: 
is almoft fmooth. 
The whole bird is white, and, in it’s wild ftate, the white is extreamly clean and 
elegant, as in the fwan; when kept, as we fometimes have it in confined places, it be¬ 
comes nafty, and lofes the beauty of it’s colouring: the wings are moderately long, 
and are the only part of the bird, where there is a feather that departs from the 
whitenefs of the body : the three or four drift of the long feathers have fome blacknefs, 
efpecially at their tips: the tail is very fliort and inconfiderable. 
The legs are very long, ftrong, and white ; they are naked half-way up, above the 
middle joint, which fhews they are intended for wading in the fhallow waters; but 
the ftrudture of the feet fhews, that they are alfo formed for fwimming where it is 
deeper : the toes are connected together by a membrane, as in the feet of the fwan, 
&c. but not in fo conlpicuous a manner, or fo deeply; the outer toe of each foot is 
connected to the middle one, as far as the end of the fecond joint, but the membrane 
which connects the others reaches no farther than the firft joint. 
This fingular bird is a native of many parts of Europe, but not of England. It lives 
principally about waters, and frequents the watery countries mo ft : it is no where fo 
common as in Holland; but, though it lives about waters, it does not build among 
the fedge, and other furniture of their banks, as moft of the water-fowl do, but on 
the tops of the higheft trees: this it does in fome parts of the Low Countries as fre¬ 
quent, and in as vaft number, as the rook with us, and makes more noife. It feeds' 
on 
