BIRDS. 301 
denomination of the bird. In some species the plumage 
inclines from white to pink colour. On the hind part of 
the head is a beautiful white crest, reclining backward. 
The legs and thighs are black. The wisdom of Provi- 
dence is also most conspicuous in the conformation of the 
bill, which seems entirely adapted to the habits and man- 
ner of feeding of these birds ; the frog and the lizard, 
which constitute the principal food of the Spoonbill, 
often escape the thin and narrow beak of the heron and 
others, but here the mandibles are so large at the end, 
that the prey cannot slip aside. Like rooks and herons, 
Spoonbills build their nests on the tops of high trees, and 
lay three or four eggs, the size of those of a hen, which 
are white, sprinkled with pale red. These birds are very 
noisy during the breeding season. The Spoonbill migrates 
northward in the summer, and returns to southern climes 
on the approach of winter ; and is met with in all the in- 
termediate low countries between the Faroe Isles and the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
The American or Roseate Spoonbill is very beautiful. 
It is white, tinged with rose colour, which deepens in 
the wings and tail into the richest carmine. The feet 
are half-webbed, and the bird is generally found on the 
sea-coast, where it wades into the sea in quest of the 
small shell-fish of different kinds, on which it feeds. 
