Spoonbill

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“Spoonbill is the popular name of the birds of the genus Platalea, belonging to the heron family (Ardeidæ), order Grallatores, from the shape of the bill, which is somewhat like a spoon, being curiously widened out at the tip. Live in society in wooded marshes, and on the sea-shore. Adult male is about 32 inches long; plumage white with pale pink tinge; at the junction of the neck with the breast there is a band of buffy yellow; the naked skin on the throat is yellow; legs and feet black; bill about eight inches long, very much flattened and grooved at the base, the expanded portion yellow, the rest black. There is a white occipital crest in both sexes. The spoonbill possesses no power of modulating its voice. The windpipe is bent on itself, like the figure 8 , the coils applied to each other and held in place by a thin membrane. This peculiarity does not exist in young birds. The roseate spoonbill, a native of the United States, has rose-colored plumage."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

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Birds: S

Source

Everybody's Cyclopedia (New York, NY: Syndicate Publishing Company, 1912)

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