DISSOURA. 159 



132. PLATALEA MINOR Temminck and Schlegel. 

 LESSER SPOONBILL. 



Platalea, minor TEMMINCK and SCHLEGEL, Fauna Japonica Aves (1850), 120, 

 pi. 76; SHABPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 50; Hand-List (1889), 

 1, 188; McGREGOE, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1906), 1, 766. 

 Luzon (Banks). Korea, Japan, China, and Formosa. 



"Adult male. Entirely white with a small but full nuchal crest; bare 

 forehead black, the black skin extending just behind the eye and occupy- 

 ing the sides of the face, fore parts of cheeks, and upper throat, on 

 which the white feathers impinge in a triangular form in the center; a 

 yellow spot in front of the eye. 'Bill slate-color, transversely barred 

 with black, the bars broken and disconnected on the spatule; apical edge 

 black, succeeded by a patch and scattered spots of orange-ocher over the 

 spatule, which is also freckled with light slate-color; inside of mouth 

 deep indigo-black; inside of nostrils ocherous; bare skin of face black, 

 with a bright yellow-ocher patch before eye, extending over under lid, and 

 a thin line over upper lid; legs purplish black; iris blood-red.' (S win- 

 hoe.) Length, 685 ; culmen, 183 ; wing, 371 ; tail, 107 ; tarsus, 121. 



"Adult female. Similar to the male. 'Bill flesh-color, longitudinally 

 streaked and speckled with blackish, mottled and freckled with slate- 

 color, chiefly about the spatule; bare skin of face dull purplish brown; 

 feet purplish black; iris yellowish brown.' (Swinhoe.) Length, 660; 

 culmen, 185; wing, 356; tail, 102; tarsus, 119. 



"Young. Differs from the adults in having a more yellowish bill, and 

 blackish shaft-stripes to the quills; outer primaries blackish at ends of 

 outer webs." (Sharpe.) 



Mr. Charles S. Banks of the Bureau of Science brought the head of 

 a spoonbill from Dagupan, Luzon, where he found this species not un- 

 common in November, 1907. While I have referred this specimen to 

 Platalea minor its specific identity is uncertain. 



Suborder 

 Family CICONIID^E. 



Bill long, stout, compressed, and tapering, tip pointed ; culmen straight 

 except at the tip ; nostril pervious in a slit ; wing large ; secondaries longer 

 than primaries; tail short; tarsus about as long as culmen and covered 

 with small hexagonal scales ; hind toe about half the length of inner toe ; 

 nails short and blunt. 



Subfamily CICONIIN^E. 



Genus DISSOURA Cabanis, 1850. 

 Character same as those given for the Family. 



