T H E W I N D 153 



and taking up the motion one after the other for the length of 

 the Hne. The precision of this movement reminded me of the 

 evolutions of chorus girls. 



No chorus girls, however, were ever arrayed like these spoon- 

 bills. With the possible exception of the flamingo I have never 

 beheld a more gorgeous sight. Spoonbills are dressed in a plum- 

 age of lovely pink, of a hue that is quite unnameable. To say 

 simply that they are pink is like stating that the sky is blue. 

 Spoonbill pink is a color that contains something of the iri- 

 descence of pearls, a little of the crimson of the sunset, the bril- 

 liance of flame and much that is completely evanescent. This 

 pink is a living tone which flares and dims with the Hght, 

 becomes in turn delicate and pale, or dark and carmine. A twist 

 of wing, flash of sunlight, shade of cloud and the dress of 

 spoonbills reflect vivid scarlet, old rose, deep salmon or the 

 color of Mediterranean coral. Contrast this raiment against a 

 seascape of deep indigo, the lucid green of a coral lagoon, the 

 heavy olive of mangrove trees, a sky of cerulean blue and the 

 golden yellow of a sun-drenched tropical beach and you have 

 a faint approximation of spoonbills in their natural haunts. 



The hour is rapidly approaching, unless something is done 

 for their protection, when the last roseate spoonbill in this 

 quarter of the globe will build its last nest and lay the last 

 spoonbill egg. Great flocks of these birds once occurred in the 

 southern regions of Florida, along the Gulf of Mexico and in 

 the West Indies. The Florida colonies are all but decimated, 

 and in the West Indies the only remaining breeding flocks are 

 those in Cuba and Hispaniola where they are on the verge of 

 extinction, and on Great Inagua Island. When these are gone 

 there will have perished forever one of the loveUest and most 

 peculiar of our native birds. 



A spoonbill appears to be a cross between a stork and a duck. 

 Actually it is neither of these but is most closely related to the 



