In the same localities the curious boat-bill heron is found,--its short
thick neck and enormous beak giving it a clumsy, ungainly look alongside
the elegant flamingo. The beak may be likened to two boats, laid one
upon the other, gunwale to gunwale, the upper part of the mandible
representing the keel. It feeds on the Crustacea which it picks up on
the shore, as well as on fish--on which it pounces, as they swim by,
from some branch overhanging the water.
It is about the size of a duck, its legs being shorter, in proportion to
its body, than those of waders in general. On the top of its head the
male has a full, long plume of black feathers drooping over the back.
The neck and breast are of a greyish-white. The back also is grey, with
a wash of rusty-red; while there is a patch of a deeper tint of the same
colour upon the middle of the under part of the body. The sides are
black, and the tail white.
Although many other creatures besides those which have been described
are to be found in the vast regions we have rambled over, none of the
larger or more curious have been omitted. We have, however, been able
to take only a very cursory glance at the human inhabitants or the
wonders of the vegetable kingdom; but it is hoped that the reader will
have gained a general and correct view of the various aspects which the
wilder portions of the Western World present, as well as of the animals
with which the Creator, in his infinite wisdom, has thought fit to
people them.
Quitting America, we purpose,--in future volumes,--to wander over the
Eastern portions of the globe, the islands of the Pacific, Australasia,
and the Indian Archipelago, and to visit the Arctic and Antarctic
regions,--where numberless objects are to be found, not less interesting
and wonderful than those described in the preceding pages.