Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant on the Genus Platalea. 33 



the Platalcan problem. I do not include in my remarks 

 either the Australian species, P. flavipes, or the American 

 P. ajaja, as I consider them to belong to two distinct genera, 

 Platibis and Ajaja. 



The most recent remarks bearing on the subject before us 

 are to be found in Mr, Stejneger's " Review of the Japanese 

 Birds'' (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1887, p. 275), where an 

 excellent 7'esume of the literature is given, and the several 

 questions to be solved are put clearly before the reader. At 

 the same time I must remark that, although a great admirer 

 of Mr. Stejneger's careful sind accurate work, my own inves- 

 tigations have on several points resulted in conclusions quite 

 the opposite to those arrived at by that ornithologist — 

 notably when he says, p. 281, " it is a curious peculiarity of 

 the Spoonbills (at least of the European species) that the very 

 youngest birds have the face more denuded of feathers than 

 the older ones ; " and again (p. 284), " to this I would remark 

 that, as already stated, I regard the type of P. minor as very 

 young and that the greater extent of naked skin is due to its 

 younger age." Now even supposing, as is probably the case, 

 that all tlie species of Platalea are alike in having the downy 

 young " with nearly the whole face and throat naked " as in 

 P. leucorodla, this character ceases to be pronounced after 

 the young birds become feathered ; and in all the species 

 (always of course allowing a certain margin for individual 

 variation in this most variable group) younger specimens 

 have both the bare skin of the forehead and throat much less 

 developed than in fully adult birds of the same species. In 

 all the species the young birds may be distinguished from the 

 adults of the same sex by the following characters — the 

 smaller size (usually), the smoothness and lighter colour of 

 the bill, the smaller area of bare skin both on the forehead 

 and throat, and the black and dark brown colour of the ends 

 of the primary quills and their shafts. In fully adult speci- 

 mens of the different species with pure white primaries, &c., 

 a number of characters are found common to all at certain 

 seasons, such as the corrugations on the bill, the long crest 

 and the irregular buff-coloured band round the base of the 



SER. VI. VOL. I. D 



