HERONS, RAILS, ETC. 221 



most remarkable of all our birds of this class. Its 

 common name accurately describes and readily dis- 

 tinguishes the bird from the herons or ibises. It is 

 roseate, not a uniform red like the Scarlet Ibis, and 

 the bill is flattened and rounded at the end. The 

 time was, and not long ago, that the spoon-bills 

 were moderately abundant in Florida and along the 

 seaboard of the Gulf States. Now they are rare. 

 Chamberlain says " the plume-hunters have almost 

 exterminated them there" (in Florida). 



Spoon-bills are nocturnal in habit ; act generally as 

 the herons ; are gregarious and shy, posting a sentinel 

 when feeding. 



Including the above, there are some twenty of 

 these long-legged and long-necked birds, and their 

 habits are very much alike wherever we find them. 

 Some are migratory, and yet are not particularly 

 sensitive to a low temperature, as individual birds 

 winter as far north as the Middle States. 



The Scarlet Ibis is now scarcely a bird of the 

 United States, but the White Ibis remains, and is a 

 splendid bird. It is strictly a Southern species, that 

 wanders irregularly northward along the Atlantic 

 coast, even as far as New Jersey, and farther inland 

 up the Mississippi Valley. Nuttall quotes Bartram to 

 the effect that the ibises " fly in large flocks or squad- 

 rons, evening and morning, to and from their feeding- 

 places or roosts, and are usually called Spanish Cur- 

 lews. They subsist principally on crayfish, whose 

 cells they probe, and with their strong pinching bills 

 drag them out." 



Nuttall adds, " Sometimes, according to Bartram, 

 19* 



