Boatbill (Cancroma cochlearia), a bird of the Heron (q.v.) family, the only known species of a genus differing from the true herons in little else than the form of the brown bill, which is comparatively short and very broad, the mandibles resembling the bowls of two spoons placed one upon the other, the upper mandible overlapping the lower, keeled on its upper ridge, and hooked at the point. The boatbill is about the size of a domestic fowl, has shorter limbs than most of the herons, but resembles them in plumage, and is abundantly provided on the back of the head and neck with elongated feathers, which it erects when irritated. The front parts are white (the crown black in the male), the upper surface and tail whitish gray, the under side yellowish white, the belly rusty red. It inhabits Cayenne, Surinam, Brazil, &c., sits perched upon trees which hang over streams, and darts down upon fish, which seem to be its principal food.