238 BULLETIN" 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



would fly out of shotgun range. There were about six birds that looked to 

 me through field glasses to be in markedly different plumage from the birds 

 I shot. These sis birds, immature as I supposed, seemed to be of a solid 

 color, and that a dark gray. On the first shot fired, with which I got two, the 

 birds flew across a lake and I lost track of them, though I spent four or five 

 hours looking for some more. I believe that these birds breed in the neigh- 

 borhood of Wainwright and hope that at some close future date some one will 

 bear out my statement. 



Spring. — There is an adult male in nuptial plumage in the British 

 Museum, which was taken at Shanghai, China, in April. The only 

 other information w 7 e have about the spring migration is the fol- 

 lowing brief statement by Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883) : 



On the northeast coast of Siberia Nordenskiold records this bird as occur- 

 ring in such numbers that on two occasions in spring it was served upon 

 their mess table on board the " Vega " while they were lying frozen in at their 

 winter quarters. It arrived in spring at Tapkau, with the first bare spots, 

 early in June, and disappeared in July. To the westward, in the same vicin- 

 ity, during the summer of 1881, I saw several of these birds, and at Plover 

 Bay, on the Bering Sea shore of the same coast, secured a fine adult female 

 in breeding plumage, taken on June 26. Nothing peculiar was observed in 

 its habits, and I approached the bird without difficulty or its showing the 

 slightest concern as it stood on the flat at that place. The bird was first 

 seen feeding in the shallow water at the edge of a pool, and then stood with 

 its head drawn back and without paying the slightest attention to me until 

 it was shot. 



Courtship. — Mr. Dixon (1918) has made a thorough study of this 

 species and has given us a fine account of its interesting song flight, 

 illustrated by a diagram, from which I quote, as follows: 



The song and nuptial flight of the male spoonbill, attractive as they were 

 to the collector, in sight of such rare birds at last, were as elusive as a 

 will-o'-the-wisp. In fact we were never able to locate a female spoonbill on 

 the nest, and I have always believed that our lack of success in this regard 

 was due to the warning given by the male. Upon approaching the nest 

 site, while we were yet afar off, we were greeted by the male in full song. This 

 song, ventriloquial, pulsating, and cicadalike in quality, seemed to come first 

 from one and then from another point in the heaven above. Sometimes re- 

 searched the sky altogether in vain, but usually the bird was discovered in 

 rapid flight at an altitude of two or three hundred feet above the earth. 

 The nuptial flight consists of momentary poises alternating with rapid dips. 

 When the bird hovers or poises, the rapid beating of the wings is accompanied 

 by a fine, rhythmical, pulsating, buzzing trill, see-e-e, see-e-e, zee-e-e, rapidly 

 repeated. Following this the bird approaches the intruder, swinging down in 

 a sharp curve until 10 feet lower than the previous hovering point, where he 

 again poises on rapidly beating wings, pouring forth anew his insistent, 

 musical trill. After repeating this performance four or five times the songster 

 sweeps down in a long graceful curve until he almost touches the earth near 

 his brooding mate, then curving off, he turns and rises rapidly and almost 

 perpendicularly until almost out of sight. From this new point of vantage 

 the whole performance is repeated. After four or five such excursions, in 

 each of which the intruder is approached from a different direction, the 



