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



neck. To the best of my belief these characters are only- 

 seasonal and disappear about the end of December; for as 

 shown in a fully adult male specimen of P. major (no. 7) 

 there is no visible crest in January, and the bill is nearly 

 smooth. In March a male from Delhi (no. 4) and a female 

 from Egypt (no. 21), both fully adult, have the bill somewhat 

 corrugated and a short crest in quill, and adult male speci- 

 mens (nos. 5 and 3), procured at Hakodadi in April and 

 Jodhpur in November respectively, have fully developed crests 

 and the bill strongly corrugated. The fully adult females 

 differ from the males only in their usually smaller size ; but 

 I believe Mr. Swinhoe to be correct in his surmise that they 

 take considerably longer to attain maturity. 



I liave to return my best thanks to Dr. Biittikofer, who 

 has been more than kind in supplying me with all required 

 information, as well as in sending a number of water-colour 

 drawings of heads of various Spoonbills in the Leyden 

 Museum, also to Mr. Seebohm, Canon Tristram, and Capt. 

 Shelley, who have been kind enough to send me for exami- 

 nation specimens of Platalea from their collections. 



Key to the Species. 



A. Forehead feathered almost to the base of the 



culmen. 



a. Naked skin of throat and round eyes yellow, on 



narrow forehead and in front of eyes blackish. 



Culmen black barred with yellow. Legs black. 

 a'. Smaller ; culmen from 7-8'9 inches long . . P. Jeucm-odia, p. 35. 

 v. Larger ; culmen from 8-2-9-7 inches long . . P. viajor, p. 39. 



B. A considerable extent of forehead above the base 



of the culmen naked. 



b. Naked skin of face and throat, bill, and legs 



scarlet P. alha, p. 47. 



c. Naked skin of face and throat, bill, and legs 



black or dark piu-plish brown. 

 c'. Throat naked for a considerable extent. 

 a". Bare skin of throat extends ca. 2-8 beyond 



the angle of the mouth, rounded or slightly 



W-shaped posteriori}^, on bare forehead 



1-2 beyond base of culmen. Yellow patch 



on the back of the forehead and largely 



