[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
IS a large fowl; the colour of the whole body is white, and the resemblance of the bill to a spoon has caused the 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 backwards. The legs and thighs are black. The wisdom of Providence is also most conspicuous in the conformation of the bill, which seems entirely adapted to the habits and manner of feeding of these birds; the frog and the lizard, which constitute the principle food of the Spoon Bill, do 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
