128 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



Resident. Found along the Pacific coast ; now uncommon. 



The spoonbill still remains in remote areas of extensive swamps, 

 though in reduced numbers. It is reported from near Puerto 

 Armuelles, where it was recorded in November 1929 (McClellan, 

 Proc. California Acad. Sci., vol. 23, 1938, p. 256), across to Darien, 

 where I saw one near the mouth of the Rio Tuquesa, March 27, 1959. 

 I have seen it also near the mouth of the Rio Vidal in western 

 Veraguas (June 8, 1953, March 25, 1965) and at the Cienaga de 

 Buho, near Santa Maria, Herrera (March 10, 1948). It is found 

 regularly in the swamps around the lower Rio Chico and the Rio La 

 Jagua, though it is necessary to go far across from the La Jagua 

 Hunting Club to see it. Here I collected two on March 21, 1958. 

 There is said to have been a small colony of them until about 1930 in 



Fig. 21. — Head of roseate spoonbill, garza paleta, Ajaja ajaia, with throat pouch 



inflated. 



mangroves at the mouths of small streams in the Cocoli area in the 

 Canal Zone. 



The birds seem to be restricted to the Pacific slope, as the only 

 record for the Caribbean side is of one at Gatun, Canal Zone, in 

 November, 1911 (Jewel, Auk, 1913, p. 424). 



Spoonbills feed around ponds where they walk through the shal- 

 lows, swinging the bill from side to side to cut the mud and water, 

 and so to sift out moUusks and other food. 



They are known to many of the country hunters as the pato cuchara. 



