420 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



quail, Florida crow, Florida wren, and the Florida cardinal, all of 

 which are essentially Floridian, and the Florida wild turkey, which 

 is fast disappearing. Other forms called Floridian, because they 

 were first described from Florida, but which have a wider geographi- 

 cal range, are the Florida gallinule, several Florida hawks, the 

 Florida screech owl and barred owl, and the Florida blue jay. One of 

 the most beautiful birds, a tropical species now fast disappearing 

 from Florida and occurring nowhere else in the United States except 

 in Texas, is the roseate spoonbill. 



Of this species, known scientifically as Ajaia ajaja (pi. 54) Mrs. 

 Kirk Munroe has written a most charming description, which the 

 writer hoped to embody in the present paper, but which, on account 

 of limited space, can not be here presented in full. 



Once the roseate spoonbill inhabited the neighborhood of Paradise Key in 

 great flocks, but it is becoming rarer and rarer. * * * They are sociable 

 birds, always traveling and nesting in communities. The nests, usually built 

 among picturesque mangrove branches, look like a pile of rubbish, except in 

 the very center, where three or four whitish, brown-spotted eggs are placed. 

 Young spoonbills are covered with snowy down while they are nestlings. In 

 feeding they push their bill, indeed the entire head, down the parent's throat 

 as far as possible to secure food, each greedy little fledgling taking its turn. 

 The spoonbill is sometimes called the sboveler on account of the peculiar shape 

 of its beak, which it uses with wonderful skill in catching aquatic insects and 

 crustaceans in the mud along tbe water's edge. Quantities of its beautiful, 

 rose-colored feathers were sold to tourists a few years ago. In certain localities 

 exploring naturalists came upon great piles of carcasses from which tbe beau- 

 tiful wings bad been torn. No wonder that this unfortunate bird, whose beau- 

 tiful plumage like that of tbe egret has been its curse, has become almost extinct 

 in Florida. Thanks to tbe influence of the Audubon societies, the feathers of 

 wild birds are becoming more and more unfashionable, and it is hoped that tbe 

 roseate spoonbill may thus escape extermination. 



The white ibis, another bird belonging, like the spoonbill, to the 

 heron order, is quite common in the vicinity of Royal Palm State 

 Park. It is easily recognized by its white body plumage, black- 

 tipped wings, and decurved, orange-red beak, with which it is most 

 adept in extracting crawfish and aquatic insects from the mud of the 

 marshes. To the same order also belong the American bittern, a 

 brownish bird with greenish-yellow legs; the Ward heron, stately 

 " lady of the waters," with slate-colored back, mostly white under 

 parts, and whitish crest; the little blue heron, not always blue, but 

 sometimes pure white, also common about Paradise Key; and the 

 black-crowned and the yellow-crowned night herons, whose " day 

 begins after sunset," when they leave their roosts in the forests and 

 fly forth to feed in the marshes. 



Among the diving birds are the pied-billed grebe, also known as 

 the water witch or hell-diver, a bird easily recognized by its lobed 

 feet. The darters are represented by the uncanny water turkey, or 



