THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



^t)e il^ational SLfi^ocimion of Audubon &ocutU0 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET No. 74 



In 1858, when Dr. Henry Bryant visited Pelican Island, on Indian River, 

 he found not only Brown Pelicans, but also Roseate Spoonbills nesting there. 

 But even at that early date these beautiful and interesting birds were prey 

 for the plumer, some of whom. Dr. Bryant writes, were killing as many as 

 60 Spoonbills a day, and sending their wings to St. Augustine to be sold as 

 fans! 



From that time almost to this, 'Pink Curlews,' as the Floridan calls them, 

 have been a mark for every man with a gun. Only a remnant was left when 

 the National Association of Audubon Societies protested against the further 

 wanton destruction of bird-life, and through its wardens and by the estab- 

 lishment of reservations, attempted to do for Florida what the state had not 

 enough foresight to do for itself. 



In consequence, the Spoonbill and other birds, have been saved, to delight 

 future generations of nature lovers. Warden Kroegel, of Pelican Island, tells 

 me that, in June, 19 13, he saw a flock of 60 on the Mosquito Inlet Reser- 

 vation, and the day I pen these lines word comes from President Blackman 

 of the Florida Audubon Society, that he had seen 50 Spoonbills on Bird Island, 

 on the Gulf coast. So let us hope that what I have to write here relates not 

 to a species approaching extinction, but to one which, under proper guardian- 

 ship, is increasing and will continue to increase. 



The Roseate Spoonbill belongs to one of those families of birds which, like 

 Ibises, Parrots, Trogons, and many others, are distributed throughout the 

 warmer parts of the earth. Thus there are European, African, Asian, and 

 Australian Spoonbills, none pink like ours, but all with the singularly shaped 

 bill which gives them their common name. There are only six members in 

 this small family; and how they should have become so widely separated is 

 a question no one has answered satisfactorily. It is, however, known that, 

 at one time in the earth's history, what are now Arctic regions were very 

 much warmer, and it is not improbable that at this period Spoonbills may have 

 lived on the border of the Arctic Sea. When the climate changed and the ice 

 of the Glacial Periods formed. Spoonbills, with other birds, were forced 

 southward, and hence, although we find them today at far distant parts of 

 the globe, they at one time may have lived much nearer together. 



Of the six known species America received but one, the Roseate Spoonbill, 

 whose peculiar scientific title of Ajaia ajaja is based on the name given it 

 by certain South American Indians. When naturalists first knew this bird 



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