290 ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 



common in Holland.* To atone for this deficiency, I have endeavored 

 faithfully to delineate the figure of this American species, and may 

 perhaps resume the subject, in some future part of the present work. 



The Roseate Spoonbill, now before us, measured two feet six inches 

 in length, and near four feet in extent ; the bill was six inches and a half 

 long, from the corner of the mouth, seven from its upper base, two 

 inches over at its greatest width, and three-quarters of an inch where 

 narrowest ; of a black color for half its length, and covered with hard 

 scaly protuberances, like the edges of oyster shells : these are of a 

 whitish tint, stained with red ; the nostrils are oblong, and placed in the 

 centre of the upper mandible ; from the lower end of each nostril there 

 runs a deep groove along each side of the mandible, and about a quarter 

 of an inch from its edge ; whole crown and chin bare of plumage, and 

 covered with a greenish skin : that below the under mandible dilatable, 

 as in the genus Pelicanus ; space round the eye orange ; irides blood 

 red ; cheeks and hind head a bare black skin ; neck long, covered with 

 short white feathers, some of which, on the upper part of the neck, are 

 tipped with crimson ; breast white, the sides of which are tinged with a 

 brown burnt-color ; from the upper part of the breast proceeds a long 

 tuft of fine hair-like plumage, of a pale rose color ; back white, slightly 

 tinged with brownish ; wings a pale wild-rose color, the shafts lake ; the 

 shoulders of the wings are covered with long hairy plumage of a deep 

 and splendid carmine ; upper and lower tail coverts the same rich red ; 

 belly rosy ; rump paler ; tail equal at the end, consisting of twelve 

 feathers, of a bright brownish orange, the shafts reddish ; legs, and 

 naked part of the thighs, dark dirty red ; feet half webbed ; toes very 

 long, particularly the hind one. The upper part of the neck had the 

 plumage partly worn away, as if occasioned by resting it on the back, 

 in the manner of the Ibis. The skin on the crown is a little wrinkled ; 

 the inside of the wing a much richer red than the outer. 



* The European species breeds on trees, by the seaside ; lays three or four white 

 eggs, powdered with a few pale red spots, and about the size of those of a hen ; are 

 very noisy during breeding time; feed on fish, muscles, itc, which, like the Bald 

 Eagle, they frequently take from other birds, frightening them by ''lattering their 

 bill ; they are also said to eat grass, weeds, and roots of reeds : they are migra- 

 tory ; their flesh reported to savor of that of a goose ; the young are reckoned good 

 food. 



