PLATALEA, Lin. &c. PLATER, Leach. SPOONBILL.
Bill very long, much flattened, dilated towards the ex tremity, and rounded, like a spoon, or spatula ; upper mandible channelled, and transversely sulcated at the base ; nostrils approximated, oblong, open, bordered with a membrane ; face and head wholly or partially naked ; legs long and stout, the three anterior toes connected to the second articulation by deeply gashed membranes, the hinder one long, and bearing on the ground ; wings ample.
Spoonbills live in society, subsisting on small fish and their spawn, on frogs and other small reptiles; on fluvia tile testacea, mollusca, aquatic insects, and sometimes on the grassy weeds or toots of boggy soils. According to circumstances, they place their nest on trees or bushes, or among rushes. They undergo one regular moulting in the year, and are migratory. They are but thinly dispers ed over various parts of the world. Though their usual haunts are the sea-shores, or the contiguous fenny swamps, which are occasionally overflowed by the tide, or such low marshy coasts as are constantly covered with stagnant waters, they are sometimes seen by the sides of lakes or rivers in the interior of a country.
P. leucorodia, Lin. &c. Spoonbill or Mute Spoonbill. Occiput crested, body white, throat yellow. The adult bird weighs about three pounds and a half, and measures two feet eight inches in length, and four feet four inches in extent of wing, being nearly of the size of the com mon heron, but with the neck and legs much shorter. One of the most striking peculiarities of these birds is the conformation of the bill, which flaps together like two pieces of leather. It is six inches and a half long, broad and thick at the base, and very flat towards the extremity, where, in shape, it is widened and rounded, like the mouth of a mustard spatula. It is rimmed on the edges with a black border, and terminated with a small point bent downwards. The colour varies in different individuals.
In some, the little ridges which wave across the upper mandible are spotted, in others the insides towards the gape, and near the edges, are studded with small hard tubercles, or furrowed prominences, and are also rough, near the extremity of the bill, so as to enable the bird to retain its slippery prey. In this species, too, the trachea has a double flexure like the figure 8 ; but the convolu tions do not cross each other at the points of contact, be ing united by a fine membrane.
Spoonbills arc of rare occurrence in Great Britain; but they arc met with more or less frequently from Lapland to the Cape of Good Hope. In Holland, they are more frequent than in most, parts of Europe, especially in the marshy grounds near Leyden. Pallas observed them in Russia, on the banks of the Oka; and they are rather numerous on the Yaik, and in the country of the Calrnue Tartars. They arc found also in Tartan., and in some of the maritime districts of Italy, as well as in Barbary, and on all the western coast of Africa. When agitated by fear or anger they make a clattering noise by a quick motion of the mandibles of the bill ; and, when annoyed by sports men, they soar aloft by an undulatory sort of flight, which is not easily disturbed. They generally feed on small fish and their spawn, frogs, insects, sedges, or other weeds that vegetate in swampy soils. They breed in trees near their ordinary haunts, making their nests of sticks, like the heron, and laying three or four white eggs spotted with reddish. According to Belon and others, they may be tamed without much difficulty. Their flesh has been compared to that of the goose.