262 GAME BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA 



As an example of the persecution to which these birds have been 

 subjected, we may cite the following: "Swans were common winter 

 visitors on Humboldt Bay up to three years ago when a flock of about 

 forty birds lingered here until all but about six or eight were shot by 

 market hunters. I saw eighteen of these birds in the hands of a local 

 taxidermist, all of which were shot within a period of less than two 

 weeks. He had bought them cheaply, expecting to mount them, and 

 sell them at a fancy price, but they were poorly mounted and most of 

 them went to ruin right in his shop" (C. I. Clay, in letter of March 

 16, 1912). It is to be observed that all of these birds were killed 

 illegally. 



The Whistling Swan is now far from common in most parts of 

 California, and it will certainly suffer the same fate as the now prac- 

 tically extinct Trumpeter Swan, if the rigid protection now accorded 

 it is not enforced both here and in the other states and regions through 

 which it migrates. Data accumulated since 1913 indicate that the 

 Whistling Swan is holding its own and is appearing in even increasing 

 numbers in west-central California. Such a gratifying situation is 

 doubtless a result of the total protection given to swans in California 

 beginning in 1905, and also of the aid extended them under the 

 Federal Migratory Bird Law, and goes to show the effectiveness of 

 such laws, especially when they are supported by popular sentiment. 



Roseate Spoonbill 



Ajaia ajaja (Linnaeus) 



Other names — Pink Curlew; Ajaja rosea; Platea mexicana; PJataJea ajaja. 



Description — Achilts, hoth sexes: Head yellowish green; space around eye 

 and throat sac yellowish orange; band from lower mandible to back of head, 

 black; bill yellowish gray at base, mottled with brownish black, otherwise 

 pale greenish blue, light on margins; base of margin of lower mandible 

 greenish yellow; iris bright carmine; neck white; back and wings rose color, 

 deeper on under surface, wing, and hinder portion of body; shafts of scapulars 

 and flight feathers light carmine; patch on each side of lower part of neck 

 pale ochre; tail roseate at base, otherwise ochre-yellow, shafts carmine; feet 

 pale lake, claws brownish black. Male: Total length 30.75 inches (780 mm.); 

 folded wing 15.25 (387); bill 7.00 (177.5); tarsus 4.00 (101.5); weight 4 pounds 

 2 ounces (1.87 kg.). Female: Total length 28.00 (711 mm.); weight 3 jiounds 

 (1.36 kg.) (Audubon, 1843, VI, p. 77). Juvenile plumage: Head feathered 

 except around base of bill; general color white, more or less tinged with pink 

 on wing, tail, and belly; outer margin of wing narrowly dark brown; more 

 white and rosy the second year; full plumage acquired in third year (authors). 

 Natal plumage: Not known to us. 



Marks for field identification — Heron-like build, pink color, evident even 

 at a distance, and conspicuously flat paddle-shaped bill (figs. 42 and 43). 

 Much like ibises in general habits. In flight the neck and feet are fully 

 extended, and the wing-strokes are regular. 



